Summer 2014 - Harvard Law Today

Themes
Topics
Bulletin
- Winter 2022
  
  Four programs pursue research and address current topics at the intersection of religion and the law
- Summer 2021
  
  Deception spreads faster than truth on social media. Who — if anyone — should stop it?
- Fall 2020
  
  Putting the 2020 race in historical context and considering its impact on our democracy
- Summer 2020
  
  From grappling with the challenges of an unprecedented health crisis to addressing longstanding racial injustices, HLS affiliates respond
- Winter 2020
  
  From law and forgiveness to politics and the integrity of the Supreme Court to an insider’s view on foreign policy, HLS faculty tackle big issues with scholarship, candor, and compassion
- Summer 2019
  
  How have U.S. presidents found ways to expand their powers to achieve their goals?
- View All Issues

More Features

Taking Care of Business (and Nonprofits, too) 8

Taking Care of Business (and Nonprofits, too)

We follow 5 clinical students into the lab, the barbershop and the labyrinth of condominium governance.

Inside HLS

Gallery

Of Sammelbands, Coutumes and Broadsides

The HLS Library’s Historical & Special Collections department is always in search of material that shows how people thought about and understood the law throughout recorded history. A current exhibit highlights some new and unusual acquisitions, many of which were meant to be accessible to people untrained in the law. They tell a story, through words and illustrations, of the sometimes cumbersome, sometimes harsh ways justice was executed in different societies and eras.

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French arbitration treatise from 1668 that can be translated as “Charitable arbitration to avoid trial and quarrels, or at least to end them quickly, without penalty and fees.” — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption Many attorneys work hard to make sure cases don’t go to trial—but not always successfully. That practical reality was apparent in one early French arbitration treatise from 1668 that can be translated as “Charitable arbitration to avoid trial and quarrels, or at least to end them quickly, without penalty and fees.” In a a bit of French égalité, the treatise's author, Alexandre de La Roche, suggests that the qualities necessary for a good arbitrator, such as probity, patience and good will, may be found in women.

Engraving in the sammelband guiding the viewer on practices from how to stand during arbitration to how to properly bandage wounds. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption This 17th century book that describes “Remedies for the poor people in the countryside" is part of a bound collection of separate works, called a sammelband, which also includes the treatise on arbitration from the same period. Apparently, the books were used by the same person, who practiced legal as well as medical triage. These early examples of legal and medical self-help, include engravings guiding the viewer on practices from how to properly bandage wounds to how to stand during an arbitration.

A French coutume from 1579, a written record of early French law — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption Modern technology makes it easier to look up laws from different states or countries—and to keep up with ever-changing laws. In the past in France, the way to understand the disparate laws of regions or even small villages across the country was to turn to coutumes, which offer a written record of early French law. HLS has recently acquired its 24th from the city of Lille alone, and this one from 1579, covered with annotations, joins hundreds of others in the collection from other parts of France. An abundance of coutumes were needed, as Voltaire once quipped, because travelers across the country were forced to change laws as often as they did horses.

The account of Elizabeth Brownrigg, executed after she was found guilty of causing the death of a servant she had been torturing — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption While modern-day true crime accounts may seem lurid, these tales that can shock and titillate have a long history. The HLS Library has a robust collection of Anglo-American “trials and broadsides” which often present sensational details of crime and punishment (broadsides are typically a single page while trials are more often booklets or pamphlets). They include stories of murders and executions, such as the case of Elizabeth Brownrigg, an 18th-century woman who was executed for torturing and starving several of her apprentice servants.

A scene from a pamphlet about an adultery trial of a man who sued his wife for divorce because of her alleged infidelity with a servant. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption Elizabeth Brownrigg's abuse of her servant Mary Clifford was so notorious, it became the subject of a drama, which was performed on the London stage, as illustrated in this hand-colored plate.

Illustration: Symonds sets fire to the Franklin House at Hudson. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption A booklet written by a police reporter—which serves as a catalog of a career criminal’s decade-long misdeeds until his execution in 1863—also features engravings and illustrations where one can see, for example, the subject setting fire to a house or a “widow’s daughter” escaping from his clutches.

Farewell to the World of Richard Bishop, Who Now Lies Under Sentence of Death in Maidstone Gaol, for the Murder of Alfred Cartwright. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption Another broadside now in the HLS library collection focuses on Richard Bishop, who, while facing execution, was reported to offer these words of regret: “In Maidstone Gaol, I am lamenting, I am borne down with grief and pain, I for my deeds am now repenting, I shall Sydenham [his hometown] never see again.” The doomed man would become one of the last people to be executed publicly before that practice was banned in Great Britain in 1868.

1725 manuscript “Offices proper to be used with criminals and debtors” from John Disney, the vicar of St. Mary’s in Nottingham, which details how to minister to prisoners. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption The legendary sheriff of Nottingham was famously obsessed with outlaws like Robin Hood. It turns out the vicar of Nottingham also thought a lot about outlaws. That’s evident in the 1725 manuscript “Offices proper to be used with criminals and debtors” from John Disney, the vicar of St. Mary’s in Nottingham, which details how to minister to prisoners.

1725 manuscript “Offices proper to be used with criminals and debtors” from John Disney, the vicar of St. Mary’s in Nottingham, which details how to minister to prisoners. — Credit: HLS Historical & Special Collections Read Caption A former law student who entered the priesthood in 1722, John Disney offers prayers for criminals “hardened and impenitent” and lessons for “true contrition” and “forgiveness of sin.” He also offers special prayers for prisoners who were transported to serve their sentences, asking God to “be gracious to those that are to be sent abroad,” and, for those facing the ultimate sentence, prayers on “preparation for death” and “with criminals at execution.”

Alumni Notes and Newsmakers

Using Both his Head and his Heart

For this great negotiator, it comes naturally
A Visible Difference

In a transition from corporate law, an attorney focuses on increasing opportunities for women.
Siblings in the Struggle

Inspired by legendary lawyers, a brother and sister set out to change the world.
A conversation with Bertram Fields ’52

There is no one in Hollywood—indeed, throughout the entire entertainment industry—who doesn’t know the name Bert Fields.
Main Injustice

Without prosecutions, the risk of another financial crisis is greater,says a prominent federal judge.