James Q. Whitman's Books

The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era

Historical Vision and Legal Change

By: James Q. Whitman

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The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era

Historical Vision and Legal Change

By: James Q. Whitman

Well after the process of codification had begun elsewhere in nineteenth-century Europe, ancient Roman law remained in use in Germany, expounded by brilliant scholars and applied in both urban and rural courts. The survival of this flourishing Roman legal culture into the industrial era is a familiar fact, but until now little effort has been made to explain it outside the province of specialized legal history. James Whitman seeks to remedy this neglect by exploring the broad political and cultural significance of German Roman law, emphasizing the hope on the part of German Roman lawyers that they could in some measure revive the Roman social order in their own society. Discussing the background of Romantic era law in the law of the Reformation, Whitman makes the great German tradition of legal scholarship more accessible to all those interested in German history. Drawing on treatises already known to legal historians as well as on previously unexploited records of legal practice, Whitman traces the traditions that allowed nineteenth-century German lawyers like Savigny to present themselves as uniquely "impartial" and "unpolitical." This book will be of particular interest to students of the many German thinkers who were trained as Roman lawyers, among them Marx and Weber. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Page Count

300

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400860989

ISBN 13

9781400860982

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial

By: James Q. Whitman

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The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial

By: James Q. Whitman

To be convicted of a crime in the United States, a person must be proven guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” But what is reasonable doubt? Even sophisticated legal experts find this fundamental doctrine difficult to explain. In this accessible book, James Q. Whitman digs deep into the history of the law and discovers that we have lost sight of the original purpose of “reasonable doubt.” It was not originally a legal rule at all, he shows, but a theological one. The rule as we understand it today is intended to protect the accused. But Whitman traces its history back through centuries of Christian theology and common-law history to reveal that the original concern was to protect the souls of jurors. In Christian tradition, a person who experienced doubt yet convicted an innocent defendant was guilty of a mortal sin. Jurors fearful for their own souls were reassured that they were safe, as long as their doubts were not “reasonable.” Today, the old rule of reasonable doubt survives, but it has been turned to different purposes. The result is confusion for jurors, and a serious moral challenge for our system of justice.

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Page Count

286

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300116004

ISBN 13

9780300116007

Harsh Justice

Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe

By: James Q. Whitman

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Harsh Justice

Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe

By: James Q. Whitman

Criminal punishment in America is harsh and degrading--more so than anywhere else in the liberal west. Executions and long prison terms are commonplace in America. Countries like France and Germany, by contrast, are systematically mild. European offenders are rarely sent to prison, and when they are, they serve far shorter terms than their American counterparts. Why is America so comparatively harsh? In this novel work of comparative legal history, James Whitman argues that the answer lies in America's triumphant embrace of a non-hierarchical social system and distrust of state power which have contributed to a law of punishment that is more willing to degrade offenders.

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322

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198035314

ISBN 13

9780198035312

The Verdict of Battle

The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War

By: James Q. Whitman

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The Verdict of Battle

The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War

By: James Q. Whitman

Slaughter in battle was once seen as a legitimate way to settle disputes. When pitched battles ceased to exist, the law of victory gave way to the rule of unbridled force. Whitman explains why ritualized violence was more effective in ending carnage, and why humanitarian laws that view war as evil have led to longer, more barbaric conflicts.

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334

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674068114

ISBN 13

9780674068117

The Jurists

A Critical History

By: James Gordley

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The Jurists

A Critical History

By: James Gordley

Jurists, or legal scholars, have had a profound impact on the development of the law. Their emergence can be traced back to ancient Rome and traced through the centuries to today. Since their inception, jurists have worked in like-minded schools united by the particular project they were pursuing. The project can be described by the goal they sought and the methods they used to achieve it. These projects were heavily influenced by their historical context and as such they pursued different goals by different methods. This proved helpful to later jurists who used the writings of previous schools to learn from both their successes and their failures. However there was one crucial element that all jurists throughout the ages have had in common: their attempts to understand and explain the law. This book is an intellectual history of the work of Western jurists from ancient Rome to the present. It describes how the law has been reshaped by the work of these successive schools. For each school, the book introduces its emergence within its historical context, the prevailing aims and methods of scholars working in it; and its legacy for legal thought and scholarship.

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333

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199689393

ISBN 13

9780199689392

Hitler's American Model

The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

By: James Q. Whitman

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Hitler's American Model

The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

By: James Q. Whitman

How American race law provided a blueprint for Nazi Germany Nazism triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes. In Hitler's American Model, James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact on the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi regime. Contrary to those who have insisted that there was no meaningful connection between American and German racial repression, Whitman demonstrates that the Nazis took a real, sustained, significant, and revealing interest in American race policies. As Whitman shows, the Nuremberg Laws were crafted in an atmosphere of considerable attention to the precedents American race laws had to offer. German praise for American practices, already found in Hitler's Mein Kampf, was continuous throughout the early 1930s, and the most radical Nazi lawyers were eager advocates of the use of American models. But while Jim Crow segregation was one aspect of American law that appealed to Nazi radicals, it was not the most consequential one. Rather, both American citizenship and antimiscegenation laws proved directly relevant to the two principal Nuremberg Laws—the Citizenship Law and the Blood Law. Whitman looks at the ultimate, ugly irony that when Nazis rejected American practices, it was sometimes not because they found them too enlightened, but too harsh. Indelibly linking American race laws to the shaping of Nazi policies in Germany, Hitler's American Model upends understandings of America's influence on racist practices in the wider world.

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223

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400884632

ISBN 13

9781400884636

The Eternal Criminal Record

By: James B. Jacobs

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The Eternal Criminal Record

By: James B. Jacobs

For 60 million Americans a criminal record overshadows everything else about their identity. Citizens have a right to know when someone around them represents a threat. But convicted persons have rights too. James Jacobs examines the problem of erroneous records and proposes ways to eliminate discrimination for those who have been rehabilitated.

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Page Count

413

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674368266

ISBN 13

9780674368262

Good Punishment?

Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment

By: James Samuel Logan

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Good Punishment?

Christian Moral Practice and U.S. Imprisonment

By: James Samuel Logan

The author critiques the American obsession with imprisonment as punishment, calling it "retributive degradation" of the incarcerated. His analysis draws on both salient empirical data and material from a variety of disciplines - social history, anthropology, law and penal theory, philosophy of religion - as he uncovers the devastating social consequences (both direct and collateral) of imprisonment on such a large, unprecedented scale. The book develops a Christian social ethics of "good punishment" embodied as a politics of "healing memories" and "ontological intimacy

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Page Count

272

Publisher

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802863248

ISBN 13

9780802863249

Harsh Justice

Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe

By: James Q. Whitman

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Harsh Justice

Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe

By: James Q. Whitman

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322

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198035314

ISBN 13

9780198035312

Hitler's American Model

The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

By: James Q. Whitman

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Hitler's American Model

The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

By: James Q. Whitman

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223

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400884632

ISBN 13

9781400884636

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial

By: James Q. Whitman

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The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

Theological Roots of the Criminal Trial

By: James Q. Whitman

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Page Count

286

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Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300116004

ISBN 13

9780300116007

Book's by James Q. Whitman

The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era

The Legacy of Roman Law in the German Romantic Era

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

Harsh Justice

Harsh Justice

The Verdict of Battle

The Verdict of Battle

The Jurists

The Jurists

Hitler's American Model

Hitler's American Model

The Eternal Criminal Record

The Eternal Criminal Record

Good Punishment?

Good Punishment?

Harsh Justice

Harsh Justice

Hitler's American Model

Hitler's American Model

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

The Origins of Reasonable Doubt

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