The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which were ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, abolished slavery, established national citizenship and made equality before the law a constitutional requirement. These national constitutional amendments brought revolutionary change to America's foundational law, but it was up to state and local legal actors to incorporate this change into the law that governed the everyday lives of Americans. The literature of Reconstruction legal history tends to place federal law, federal courts and federal legal actors at the center of the story. But in the nineteenth century, the federal judicial system was limited in its institutional capacity and its jurisdictional authority. State courts, on the other hand, were ubiquitous and possessed of expansive jurisdictional authority to hear cases arising under both state and federal law. Before the end of the nineteenth century, most Americans could spend their entire lives without encountering the federal legal system. On the other hand, county courts and the common law legal culture in which they existed were an integral part of their daily lives. This dissertation focuses on the state of North Carolina, examining how the state's legal actors articulated the meaning of freedom and incorporated it into their common law legal culture during Reconstruction. Engaging with recent literature that reconsiders the importance of the common as an ideology and mode of governance, this dissertation argues that the common law conceptualization of rights stood in contrast to the abstract, individual rights embodied in the U.S. Constitution. Common law rights were contextual, relational, and hierarchical. Further, common law principles centered around creating and maintaining good social order rather than protecting individual rights. Because the common law dominated nineteenth century legal culture, North Carolina legal actors could not simply impose the principles of the newly amended U.S. Constitution onto the existing legal order. Rather, to ensure their lasting legitimacy they had to integrate those principles into the existing common law legal culture. The process of integration began even before North Carolina ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. At the end of the war, Union army General John M. Schofield oversaw the administration of justice and the implementation of freedom in North Carolina through military commission proceedings over civilians. Even in these military tribunals the common law provided a common language and ideology through which northern military officials, North Carolinian citizens and North Carolina lawyers could contest the precise meaning of freedom. Once civilian courts resumed their authority, North Carolinians continued throughout Reconstruction to refine the meaning of freedom and to incorporate the new constitutional values in the language of the common law. By focusing on the local implementation of constitutional change, this dissertation sheds light on how Americans experienced emancipation and freedom in their everyday lives. However, uncovering the common law context in which it developed aids our understanding of nineteenth century constitutional doctrine as well.

Nessa dissertação, pretendemos analisar a valorização dos precedentes judiciais pelo Direito Processual Civil brasileiro. Para tanto, no primeiro capítulo faremos algumas considerações gerais sobre os sistemas de common e civil law, principalmente no tocante ao tema desta pesquisa: os precedentes judiciais. Diante da comparação entre os dois sistemas, poderemos demonstrar que há uma inegável aproximação entre eles, principalmente no que concerne aos precedentes judiciais. Com relação ao Direito brasileiro, muito embora a valorização dos precedentes seja alternativa eficaz para propiciar segurança jurídica e igualdade ao jurisdicionado, e imprimir celeridade à marcha processual, as técnicas de operação com precedentes já existentes, recentemente inseridas e aquelas que se pretende inserir, devem ser pensadas à luz dos referidos princípios constitucionais e de acordo com a nossa realidade. Nesse contexto, estudaremos, no segundo capítulo, os princípios que orientam o tema da presente pesquisa, para que possamos, no terceiro capítulo, analisar individualmente cada técnica processual relacionada ao nosso tema, de forma a verificar a contribuição que cada uma trouxe ao ordenamento jurídico, bem como ao ideal de concretização dos princípios relacionados no capítulo anterior. Por fim, no quarto capítulo abordaremos o Projeto do novo Código de Processo Civil, que, conforme será demonstrado, dá continuidade ao movimento de valorização dos precedentes judiciais pelo Direito Processual Civil brasileiro, na medida em que estabelece normas para vinculação dos Juízes e Tribunais ao entendimento dos Tribunais superiores, bem como cria novo mecanismos de operação com precedentes judiciais. / In this work, we intend to analyze the enhancement of judicial precedents by the Brazilian Civil Procedure Law. In this end, in the first chapter, we will make some general remarks on the common law and civil law systems, especially regarding the topic of this research: judicial precedents. Following the comparison of these two systems, we will be able to demonstrate that there is an undeniable closeness between them, especially with regard to judicial precedents. With respect to Brazilian Law, although the contemporary tendency towards increasing the significance of precedent is an effective alternative that provides legal certainty and equality to all citizens, and to expedite Court proceedings, the procedural techniques regarding precedents should be analyzed in light of the constitutional principles listed above and in accordance with our reality. In this context, in the second chapter, we study the principles that guide the focus of this research, so that, in the third chapter, we can individually analyze each procedural technique related to our topic, in order to verify the contribution that they make to the legal system, as well as to the ideal of embodiment of the principles listed in the previous chapter. Finally, in the fourth chapter, we will discuss the project of the new Code of Civil Procedure, which, as will be shown, continues the movement towards increasing the value of judicial precedents by Brazilian Civil Procedure Law, extending the standards for binding lower court judges to the understandings of the higher courts and creating new mechanisms for operating with judicial precedents.

Nessa dissertação, pretendemos analisar a valorização dos precedentes judiciais pelo Direito Processual Civil brasileiro. Para tanto, no primeiro capítulo faremos algumas considerações gerais sobre os sistemas de common e civil law, principalmente no tocante ao tema desta pesquisa: os precedentes judiciais. Diante da comparação entre os dois sistemas, poderemos demonstrar que há uma inegável aproximação entre eles, principalmente no que concerne aos precedentes judiciais. Com relação ao Direito brasileiro, muito embora a valorização dos precedentes seja alternativa eficaz para propiciar segurança jurídica e igualdade ao jurisdicionado, e imprimir celeridade à marcha processual, as técnicas de operação com precedentes já existentes, recentemente inseridas e aquelas que se pretende inserir, devem ser pensadas à luz dos referidos princípios constitucionais e de acordo com a nossa realidade. Nesse contexto, estudaremos, no segundo capítulo, os princípios que orientam o tema da presente pesquisa, para que possamos, no terceiro capítulo, analisar individualmente cada técnica processual relacionada ao nosso tema, de forma a verificar a contribuição que cada uma trouxe ao ordenamento jurídico, bem como ao ideal de concretização dos princípios relacionados no capítulo anterior. Por fim, no quarto capítulo abordaremos o Projeto do novo Código de Processo Civil, que, conforme será demonstrado, dá continuidade ao movimento de valorização dos precedentes judiciais pelo Direito Processual Civil brasileiro, na medida em que estabelece normas para vinculação dos Juízes e Tribunais ao entendimento dos Tribunais superiores, bem como cria novo mecanismos de operação com precedentes judiciais. / In this work, we intend to analyze the enhancement of judicial precedents by the Brazilian Civil Procedure Law. In this end, in the first chapter, we will make some general remarks on the common law and civil law systems, especially regarding the topic of this research: judicial precedents. Following the comparison of these two systems, we will be able to demonstrate that there is an undeniable closeness between them, especially with regard to judicial precedents. With respect to Brazilian Law, although the contemporary tendency towards increasing the significance of precedent is an effective alternative that provides legal certainty and equality to all citizens, and to expedite Court proceedings, the procedural techniques regarding precedents should be analyzed in light of the constitutional principles listed above and in accordance with our reality. In this context, in the second chapter, we study the principles that guide the focus of this research, so that, in the third chapter, we can individually analyze each procedural technique related to our topic, in order to verify the contribution that they make to the legal system, as well as to the ideal of embodiment of the principles listed in the previous chapter. Finally, in the fourth chapter, we will discuss the project of the new Code of Civil Procedure, which, as will be shown, continues the movement towards increasing the value of judicial precedents by Brazilian Civil Procedure Law, extending the standards for binding lower court judges to the understandings of the higher courts and creating new mechanisms for operating with judicial precedents.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:33:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 444155.pdf: 125862 bytes, checksum: 38e05cc26d38b4f5c2324707d56c7483 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-31 / The binding precedent is a topic which, more and more, has taken part of the academic and jurisprudential debates, in the face of its insertion in the Brazilian legal order through binding sumula, binding decisions in the appeals to the Supreme Court, acknowledgment of the general repercussion in recurrent appeals to the Supreme Court, and the judgment of recurrent appeals to the Superior Court. The best comprehension of the binding precedent, to avoid distortion in its application by the Brazilian jurists, demands a deep study of its original system, and the way it is faced and used in such a system. Aiming at this deepening, the present dissertation departs from the comparative study between the original law family of binding precedent, the Common Law family, and the family in which is inserted the Brazilian law, the Civil Law. Understanding both systems and these main features, a detailed examination of the binding doctrine in Common Law was established and, after that, it has done an analysis of the way this doctrine is being transposed to Brasil. The work was developed through the bibliographic research in historical and comparative law books, the reading of British and North-American authors who had been dedicated to the concepts of Common Law, and the analysis of Brazilian doctrinaire and jurisprudential opinion about the topic. The investigation which was made allowed to verify the importance of adopting binding precedents in the evolution of national law. But, on the other hand, it also permitted to realize the lack of technique in the consolidation of this practice in the national territory, what is responsible for the compromising of the judicial assistance / O precedente vinculante ? um tema que, cada vez mais, vem ocupando espa?o nos debates acad?micos e jurisprudenciais, diante da sua inser??o no ordenamento jur?dico brasileiro atrav?s das s?mulas vinculantes, decis?es vinculantes em recursos extraordin?rios, do reconhecimento da repercuss?o geral em recursos extraordin?rios repetitivos e do julgamento de recursos especiais repetitivos. A melhor compreens?o do precedente vinculante, para se evitar distor??es na sua aplica??o pelos juristas p?trios, exige um estudo aprofundado do sistema jur?dico que lhe deu origem, e da forma como ? encarado e utilizado neste sistema. Visando a este aprofundamento, a presente disserta??o partiu do estudo comparado entre a fam?lia de direito origin?ria da doutrina dos precedentes, a fam?lia do Common Law, e a fam?lia na qual se insere o direito brasileiro, a do Civil Law. Entendendo estes dois sistemas e as suas principais caracter?sticas, estabeleceu-se, ent?o, um exame minucioso da doutrina dos precedentes dentro do Common Law e, ap?s, a an?lise de como esta doutrina vem sendo transposta para o Brasil. O trabalho foi desenvolvido atrav?s da pesquisa bibliogr?fica em livros de hist?ria do direito e de direito comparado, da leitura de autores ingleses e norte-americanos que se dedicaram aos conceitos do Common Law, bem como atrav?s da an?lise das opini?es doutrin?rias e jurisprudenciais brasileiras a respeito do tema. A investiga??o realizada permitiu constatar a import?ncia da ado??o dos precedentes vinculantes para a evolu??o do direito nacional. Mas, por outro lado, permitiu perceber tamb?m a atecnia com que essa pr?tica vem se consolidando no direito nacional, o que s? compromete a qualidade da presta??o jurisdicional

The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) is seen as a landmark piece of constitutional legislation that brought about many legal and political changes in the United Kingdom's human rights architecture. Yet the HRA is vulnerable to repeal; successive governments have promised to repeal or otherwise alter the HRA. In this climate, the Supreme Court has instructed counsel to argue common law rights first, with the HRA there to supplement and fill the gap on the occasions where the common law does not go as far as the HRA. The logical conclusion of this is that the Supreme Court, or at least some Justices, think that the common law adequately protects rights to a level near, if not the same as, the HRA does; the results of arguing the common law will often be the same as those resulting from reliance on the HRA. The academic commentary regarding these judicial statements has been far from enthusiastic. The consensus is that common law rights do not go as far as the HRA in terms of their width, that the enforcement mechanisms lack rigour compared to s 3 HRA and the proportionality principle, and that they are vulnerable to legislative override. Therefore, a loss of the HRA would be a loss for the legal protection of rights. This thesis disputes the conclusion stated in the foregoing paragraph. It argues that one has to view the vectors against which one can measure the potency of common law rights through the lens of the rule of law. This principle, the controlling factor in the constitution, promises protection against arbitrary behaviour by state actors because it embodies the value of equality of concern. Once this is appreciated, an entirely new dimension of common law rights becomes apparent; the reach of rights, their rigour of protection, and their constitutional resilience are revealed to be much stronger than orthodoxy suggests.

A fair, unbiased jury that follows the courts instructions is a crucial aspect of the American criminal justice system, mandated by both the California and United States Constitution. When jurors violate judicial instructions, it can jeopardize the impartiality of a case. Despite this, little research has been completed on what individual differences are indicative of greater willingness to commit jury misconduct. Misconduct can occur when jurors fail to follow judicial instructions in circumstances that a reasonable person may be tempted to disobey. This study explores potential individual differences that correlate with a greater likelihood of excusing and even committing juror misconduct under specific circumstances. Participants (N = 148) in an online survey read one of six vignettes relating to a mock court case. These vignettes either presented clear or confusing information, and included one of three types of juror misconduct witness [googled a term, talked to their spouse about the case, or went to the crime scene]. Neither the severity of the juror misconduct nor the clarity of expert testimony significantly affected participant’s perceptions of the behavior. However, participants Right Wing Authoritarianism and Belief in a Just World scores did affect their likelihood of reporting the juror misconduct as well as influenced their report of whether they would engage in these behaviors.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to broadly determine the influence of the Constitution on the South African labour environment and to do so from the perspective of the labour rights of workers who fall outside the ambit of the traditional common law contract of employment. An examination of the Constitution&rsquo / s influence will involve a consideration of various aspects including: (i) The evolution of the concept of employee and the contract of employment / (ii) The impact of the Constitution on South African labour relations and labour laws / (iii) The purposive interpretation of legislation / (iv) An outline of the &lsquo / Kylie&rsquo / CCMA ruling and Labour Court judgment / (v) The current legal position of prostitution in South Africa / (vi) The requirements for a meaningful transformation in the legal treatment of sex workers particularly as regards their entitlement to the protections afforded to vulnerable workers provided in the LRA.</p>

Thèse (LL.M.)--Université Laval, 2008. / Bibliogr.: f. 234-270. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

Not available / text