Yale Law School Blogs

A visit from Yale's Directed Studies students

Mike Widener — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:24:00 GMT

I was pleased to welcome about 30 freshmen from Yale's Directed Studies program to the Paskus-Danziger Rare Book Room on November 4. They were accompanied by three of the Directed Studies faculty: Edwin Duval (French), Paul Freedman (History), and Justin Zaremby (Yale College and Law '10).

Directed Studies provides an interdisciplinary study of Western civilization to 125 selected Yale freshmen via three year-long courses -- literature, philosophy, and historical & political thought -- that focus on the central texts of Western civilization.

We viewed several books and manuscripts from among the foundational texts of European and English law, and how these texts shaped and were shaped by legal education. From Europe there was a 13th-century compilation of the Institutes, Code, and Novels of Justinian, and a 14th-century manuscript of the Clementines from the Corpus Juris Canonici, which show the development of the gloss as an outgrowth of the law lectures at the university in Bologna. The Institutes themselves had been promulgated by the Roman emperor Justinian in the 6th century as a textbook for learning Roman law. Likewise for canon law, the Decretum of Gratian was not merely a compilation of papal legislation, but a tool for teaching canon law at Bologna. Early printed editions of Justinian's Institutes (1516) and the Liber Sextus (1514) show how the structure of text-and-gloss shaped the layout of early printed law books. Legal humanists later stripped away the medieval gloss, but an 18th-century scholar replaced the gloss with his own study notes in an interleaved copy of the Institutes.

University-trained jurists in Europe had to plow through every line of Justinian's texts or the Corpus Juris Canonici to earn their doctorates in law. In England, by contrast, lawyers did not study English common law in universities but at the Inns of Court, and they did not study foundation texts as the Europeans did. On view for the students was one of our two 13th-century manuscripts of Bracton, the text that tried to do for English law what Justinian's Institutes did for Roman law, but failed. Education in the common law was practice-based; students attended hearings in the royal courts and studied cases from the Year Books, the anonymous medieval case reports that focused on procedure rather than outcomes. The first text written for English law students was Littleton's Tenures, a little treatise on land law that ws reprinted over seventy times across four centuries. Sir Edward Coke's commentary on Littleton once again adapted the device of the gloss, with Coke's dense and learned notes almost swallowing up Littleton's original text. The copy of Coke on Littleton (1633) that the students viewed has additional layers of extensive manuscript notes, attributed to the English author Samuel Butler (1612-1680), author of a best-selling satire on the Puritans, Hudibras, and Butler's patron William de Longueville (1639-1721).

The book that revolutionized common-law legal education, especially for do-it-yourself'ers in the early United States, was Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, the first book to give a comprehensive overview of English law in prose that an educated layman could digest. On view for the students was the 1790 edition of the Commentaries printed in Worcester, Mass., by the pioneering American printer Isaiah Thomas, as well as a student notebook (New England?, 1810?), where the student's geography notes are followed by "Questions and Answers upon Law: Blackstone's Commentaries."

My thanks to Justin Zaremby for organizing this visit. The students enjoyed the chance to see the books up close and actually handle them. Let's do it again!

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

[Cases] ECHR Chamber Judgment of October 29, 2009, in the case of Chaudet v. France (right to a fair hearing)

akis.psygkas — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:35:00 GMT

Principal facts

The applicant, Patricia Chaudet, is a French national who worked as an air hostess from 1982. Between 1997 and 2001 she suffered five work-related accidents as a result of air turbulence. She was awarded a disability pension in June 2002 (for a degree of disablement of 8%), then given disabled-worker status in April 2003. On 30 April 2003 the civil aviation medical council declared her unfit for the duties of an air hostess (without giving reasons for its decision); then, on 12 May 2004, declared her permanently unfit for such duties. On 25 October 2004 the civil aviation medical board declared that this permanent incapacity was not attributable to the airline, thus depriving the applicant of the right to receive compensation in that respect. After an unsuccessful application for review, Ms. Chaudet challenged that decision before the Conseil d'Etat, considering, in particular, that insufficient reasons had been given for it. The Conseil d'Etat dismissed the appeal; it held, in particular, that sufficient reasons had been given for the disputed decision, in view of the legal requirement to respect medical confidentiality.

The civil aviation medical board is a collegial body governed by the Code of Civil Aviation. It forms part of the Ministry of Transport and is made up of doctors who are appointed by the Minister. It studies and coordinates physiological, medical, medico-social and health issues of interest to civil aviation, particularly with regard to flight personnel and passengers. It rules, among other things, on the permanent nature of airline employees' medical incapacity and takes decisions on the attribution of accidents at work.

Complaint before the ECHR

Ms. Chaudet relied essentially on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (right to a fair hearing). She complained of the unfair nature of the proceedings before the civil aviation medical board, on account of the inadequacy of the reasons given for its decision, and about the fact that it had been impossible for her to have access to the case file on which the decision had been based. She also complained about the presence of the Government Commissioner at the deliberations of the bench of the Conseil d'Etat which ruled on her case.

Decision of the ECHR

On the fairness of the proceedings before the civil aviation medical board

Ms. Chaudet was entitled to have her claims examined by a tribunal which met the requirements of Article 6§1, since they were genuinely aimed at obtaining payment of compensation provided for by law.

The Court did not consider it necessary to examine whether the civil aviation medical board met the requirements of Article 6§1. In contrast, it was obliged to ensure that the Conseil d'Etat satisfied the applicant's right to a court and to determination of the dispute by a court. In this case, the Conseil d'Etat did not have "full jurisdiction", which would have had the effect of substituting its decision for that of the civil aviation medical board. It had nonetheless addressed all of the submissions made by the applicant, on factual and legal grounds, and assessed all of the evidence in the medical file, having regard to the conclusions of all the medical reports discussed before it by the parties.

The applicant's case had thus been examined in compliance with the requirements of this Article and the Court concluded (unanimously) that there had been no violation of Article 6§1.

On the presence of the Government Commissioner at the Conseil d'Etat's deliberations

Reiterating its case-law (Martinie v. France ([GC], no 58675/00, 12 April 2006)) that the presence of the Government Commissioner at the deliberations of the bench of the Conseil d'Etat, as was the situation at the time of the disputed events, was incompatible with the requirements of a fair hearing, the Court concluded (unanimously) that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1.

The judgment is available only in French here. You can read the press release, which is available in English, here.

[Reports] Lobbying Transparency in the European Union

akis.psygkas — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:08:00 GMT

According to its website, the Commission recognizes that lobbying is a legitimate, even essential part of democratic decision making, whether it is carried out by public affairs consultancies, private companies, NGOs, law firms, think tanks or trade associations. The Commission needs and appreciates the input it gets from such organizations, but in return asks their cooperation in showing the public that the relationship is based on high standards of probity and transparency.

As part of a wider effort to make EU decision-making more transparent, the Commission launched a register in 2008 that is meant to list all interest representatives - a catch-all term for groups seeking to influence policy. The first annual review of the voluntary scheme found that the number of registered organizations and individuals has reached 2,100 and is rising. The report notes that some supporters of efforts to regulate lobbyists want registration to be mandatory. But it says that is not warranted given the high rate of participation so far. Commissioner Siim Kallas says the register has changed the commission's corporate culture. EU officials now think twice about meeting with unregistered interest representatives. And some EU divisions have dropped unregistered organizations from their database or taken similar steps.

But not everyone is happy with the register. Many law firms and think tanks have boycotted it. Lawyers worry it violates their rules on client confidentiality, while think tanks say their activities do not count as lobbying. The Commission hopes to resolve these issues by clarifying the language in the register and creating a separate category for think tanks. It will also revise the rules for financial disclosure to improve transparency.

More information is available here.

Thanksgiving Holiday Library Hours

ylslibrary — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:32:00 GMT

November 25, Wed, 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m., reduced staff
November 26, Thur, Closed (Thanksgiving)
November 27, Fri, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., reduced staff
November 28, Sat, Regular Hours 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
November 29, Sun, Regular Hours 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 Midnight

To view the entire calendar, please go to: http://www.library.yale.edu/hours/law.html

Tips for Research and Formatting the First Brief Writing Assignment

ylslibrary — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:01:00 GMT

When: October 26th from 4-4:30, repeats on Oct. 28th from 3:00-3:30 and Oct. 30th from 11:00-11:30 am.
Place: Computer Classroom, L2
This program will give 1L students the tools to properly format briefs in Microsoft Word, including how to create a table of contents and a table of authorities. Students will also learn how to find applicable briefs and other court documents to aid in research, as well as how to verify research with a citator.

Scanners at the Law Library

ylslibrary — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:17:00 GMT

Scanners at the Law Library – Announcement

There are three options for you to scan documents/pictures here at the Law Library:

Level 1, Foreign & International Area.
You must log in with your Yale Net ID and Password to be able to scan and email documents to yourself (instructions are located next to the machine)
Level 2, Computer Cluster Area
Yale Law School Community use only. You must log in with your Net ID and password in order to use this flat scanner
(instructions are posted next to the machine)
Level 3, Reading Room Area, Carrel # 347
This is a portable scanner that must be checked out from the Circulation Desk with your Yale ID. The scanner’s software is already installed in the computer workstation located in carrel # 347, but if you’d like to upload the software onto your own laptop, please contact Cesar.Zapata@yale.edu
(instructions are posted next to the computer)

Freedom of the Seas: Acknowledgments

Mike Widener — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:44:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the following individuals and institutions for their assistance in preparing this exhibit:

David Warrington
Librarian for Special Collections
Harvard Law School Library

Kathryn James
Assistant Curator, Early Modern Books and Manuscripts
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

Christine McCarthy
Chief Conservator
Yale University Library

Tara Kennedy
Preservation Field Services Librarian
Yale University Library

Shana Jackson
Lillian Goldman Law Library

Benjamin Yousey-Hindes
Stanford University

The portrait of Hugo Grotius is from: Hugo Grotius, Inleydinghe tot de Hollandsche rechtsgheleerdheydt (Haarlem, 1636). Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

"Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law," curated by Edward Gordon and Michael Widener, is on display October 2009 through January 2010 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Freedom of the Seas: Bibliography

Mike Widener — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:09:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum

The Development of the Law of the Sea in the 17th Century: A Bibliography of Modern Scholarship
Compiled by Edward Gordon

Akashi. Kinji. Cornelius van Bynkershoek: His Role in the History of International Law. The Hague: Kluwer, 1998.

Alexandrowicz, C.H. An Introduction to the History of the Law of Nations in the East Indies. Oxford: Clarendon, 1967.

Alexandrowicz, C.H. "Freitas versus Grotius," 35 British Yearbook of International Law 162 (1959).

Allen, E.W. "Freedom of the Seas," 60 American Journal of International Law 814 (1966).

Alsop, J.D. "William Welwood, Anne of Denmark and the Sovereignty of the Sea," 49 Scottish Historical Review 171 (1980).

Amaral, Sylvino Gurgel do. "Le ‘Mare Liberum' et ses adversaries", in Hugo Grotius: Essays on His Life and Works Selected for the Occasion of the Tercentenary of His ‘De Jure Belli ac Pacis' 1625-1925 (A. Lysen ed.; Leyden: A.W. Sythoff, 1925). [Translated from the Portuguese, where it appeared in the author's Ensaio subre a vide e obras de Hugo de Groot (Grotius) (Rio de Janeiro-Paris, 1903).]

Anand, R.P. Origins and Development of the Law of the Sea: History of International Law Revisited. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1983.

Andrews, Kenneth R. Ships, Money and Politics: Seafaring and Naval Enterprise in the Reign of Charles I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Armitage, David, ed. The Free Sea: Hugo Grotius, Translated by Richard Hakluyt; with William Welwood's Critique and Grotius's Reply. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004.

Blom, Hans W., ed. Property, Piracy and Punishment: Hugo Grotius on War and Booty in De Jure Praedae – Concepts and Contexts. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Borschberg, Peter. "Grotius, Intra-Asian Trade and the Portuguese Estado da India Problems," in Property, Piracy and Punishment: Hugo Grotius on War and Booty in De Jure Praedae – Concepts and Contexts ( Hans W. Blom, ed.; Leiden: Brill, 2009).

Borschberg, Peter. "The Seizure of the Sta. Catarina Revisited: The Portuguese Empire in Asia, VOC Politics and the Origins of the Dutch-Johor Alliance (1602-ca. 1616)," 33 Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 31 (2002).

Braudel, Fernand. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

Brett, Annabel. Liberty, Right and Nature: Individual Rights in Latin Scholastic Thought. Cambridge: University Press, 1997. [See pp. 165-204, on Vásquez.]

Brito Vieira, Monica. "Mare liberum vs. Mare clausum: Grotius, Freitas, and Selden's Debate on Dominion over the Seas," 64 Journal of the History of Ideas 361 (2003).

Butler, Geoffrey; & Simon Maccoby. The Development of International Law. London: Longmans, Green 1928. [See esp. pp. 40-60, "The World by Sea".]

Butler, W.E. "Grotius and the Law of the Sea," in Hugo Grotius and International Relations (H. Bull, A. Roberts & B. Kingsbury, eds.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

Chatterjee, Hiralal. International Law and Inter-State Relations in Ancient India. Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay, 1958.

Christianson, Paul. Discourse on History, Law, and Governance in the Public Career of John Selden, 1610-1635. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1996.

Clark, G. N. "Grotius's East India Mission to England," 20 Transactions of the Grotius Society 45 (1935).

Clark, G. N., & van Eysinga, W. J. M. "The Colonial Conferences between England and the Netherlands in 1613 and 1615," 15 Bibliotheca Visseriana 15 (1940).

De Pauw, F. E. R., ed. Grotius and the Law of the Sea (P.J. Arthern, transl.). Brussels: Institut de Sociologie, 1965.

Diesselhorst, Malte. "Hugo Grotius and the Freedom of the Seas," 3 Grotiana (N.S.) 11 (1982).

Dumbauld, E. "Grotius on the Law of Prize," 14 Journal of Public Law 370 (1965).

Edmundson, George. Anglo-Dutch Rivalry during the First Half of the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911.

Eysinga, William J. M. van. "Quelques Observations au Sujet du Mare Liberum et du De Jure Praedae de Grotius," 9 Grotiana 60 (1942).

Eysinga, William .M. van. "Le 350ieme anniversaire du ‘De jure Praedae commentarius' de Grotius" [French translation of address of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Letters, March 24, 1956], in Sparso Collect (Leyden 1958), pp. 358-374.

Fenn, Percy Thomas, Jr. The Origin of the Right of Fishery in Territorial Waters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1926. [See esp. ch. VIII, "Mare liberum versus Mare clausum."]

Fenn, Percy Thomas, Jr. "Origins of the Theory of Territorial Waters," 20 American Journal of International Law 465 (1926).

Fenn, Percy Thomas, Jr. "Justinian and the Freedom of the Seas," 19 American Journal of International Law 465 (1925).

Fruin, Robert. "An Unpublished Work of Hugo Grotius," 5 Bibliotheca Visseriana 3 (1925). [English translation of a work first published, in Dutch, in 1868.]

Fulton, Thomas Wemyss. The Sovereignty of the Seas: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters: With Special Reference to the Rights of Fishing and the Naval Salute. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1911.

Gepken-Jager, Ella; Gerard van Solinge, & Levinus Timmerman. VOC 1602-2002: 400 Years of Company Law. Deventer: Kluwer, 2005

Goldwin, R.A. "Locke and the Law of the Sea," 71 Commentary 46 (June 1981).

[Grotius, Hugo]. De jure praedae commentaries. I. Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty. Gwladys L. Williams and Walter H. Zeydel, transl.. II. The Collotype Reproduction of the Original Manuscript on 1604 in the Handwriting of Grotius. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1950.

Grotius, Hugo. "Defense of Chapter V of the Mare Liberum," in 7 Bibliotheca Visseriana 154 (1928). [Originally written between 1613 and 1617.]

Haggenmacher, Peter. "Grotius and Gentili: A Reassessment of Thomas E. Holland's Inaugural Lecture," in Hugo Grotius and International Relations (H. Bull, A. Roberts & B. Kingsbury, eds.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).

Hakluyt, Richard. The Original Writings and Correspondence of the Two Richard Hakluyts. 2 vols. E.G.R.Taylor, ed. London: Hakluyt Society, 1935.

Holk, L.E. van, & C.G. Roeflofsen, eds. Grotius Reader: A Reader for Students of International Law and Legal History. The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Instituut, 1983.

Ito, F. "The Thoughts of Hugo Grotius in the Mare Liberum," 18 Japanese Annual of International Law 1 (1974).

Ittersum, Martine van. Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies (1595-1615). Boston: Brill, 2006.

Ittersum, Martine van, ed. Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty: Hugo Grotius. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2006.

Ittersum, Martine van. "Dating the Manuscript of De Jure Praedae (1604-1608): What Watermarks, Foliation and Quire Divisions Can Tell Us About Hugo Grotius' Development as a Natural Rights and Natural Law Theorist," 35 History of European Ideas 125 (2009).

Ittersum, Martine van. "Mare Liberum in the West Indies? Hugo Grotius and the Case of the Swimming Lion, a Dutch Pirate in the Caribbean at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century," 31:3 Itinerario 59 (2007).

Ittersum, Martine van. "Mare Liberum versus the Propriety of the Seas? The Debate between Hugo Grotius and William Welwood and the Impact on Anglo-Scottish-Dutch Fishing Disputes in the Second Decade of the Seventeenth Century," 10 Edinburgh Law Review 239 (2006).

Kenworthy, J.M., & George Yound. Freedom of the Seas. London: n.d.

Knight, William S.M. "Seraphin de Freitas: Critic of Mare liberum," 11 Transactions of the Grotius Society 1 (1926).

Kwiatkowska, B. "Hugo Grotius and the Freedom of the Seas," in Hugo Grotius: 1583-1983: Maastricht Hugo Grotius Colloquium March 31, 1983 (J.L.M. Elders et al., eds.; Van Gorcum: Assen, 1984).

Landwehr, John. VOC: A Bibliography of Publications Relating to the Dutch East India Company 1602-1800. Utrecht: HGS Publishers, 1991.

Lauterpacht, Hersch. "The Grotian Tradition in International Law," 23 British Yearbook of International Law 1 (1946).

Macrae, L.M. "Customary International Law and the United Nations' Law of the Sea Treaty," 13 California Western International Law Journal 181 (1983).

Meurer, Christian. The Program of the Freedom of the Seas: A Political Study in International Law. Leo J. Frechtenberg, transl. Washington: GPO, 1919.

Molen, G.H.J. van der. Alberico Gentili and the Development of International Law: His Work and Times. Amsterdam: H.J. Paris, 1937. [Later printing: Leyden 1968. See esp. ch. VI, "Questions of International Law."]

O'Connell, D.P. The International Law of the Sea. London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1983.

Oudendijk, J.K. Status and Extent of Adjacent Waters: A Historical Orientation. Leyden: Sijthoff, 1970.

Pagden, Anthony. Lords of All the World: Ideologues of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c.1500-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. [See esp. pp. 56-61 on Vasquez.]

Parks, George Bruner. Richard Hakluyt and the English Voyages. New York: American Geographical Society, 1928.

Piggott, Frances. The Freedom of the Seas Historically Treated. Oxford: printed for the Historical Section of the Foreign Office, 1919.

Porras, Ileana M. "Constructing International Law in the East Indian Seas: Property, Sovereignty, Commerce and War in Hugo Grotius' de Iure Praedae - The Law of Prize and Booty, or on How to Distinguish Merchants from Pirates," 31 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 741 (2005-2006).

Potter, Pitman B. The Freedom of the Seas in History, Law, and Politics. New York: Longmans, Green, 1924. [Reprint 2002. See esp. ch. IV, "The Grotius-Selden Controversy."]

Quinn, D.B. "A Hakluyt Chronology," in The Hakluyt Handbook (D.B. Quinn, ed.; 2 vols.; London: Hakluyt Society, 1974).

Rawlinson, H.G. Intercourse between India and the Western World: From the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome. Cambridge: University Press, 1926.

Roelofsen, C.G. "The Sources of Mare Liberum; the Contested Origins of the Doctrine of the Freedom of the Seas," in International Law and its Sources: Liber Amicorum Maarten Bos (W.P. Heere, ed.; Boston: Kluwer, 1988). [Reprinted in C.G. Roelofsen, Studies in the History of International Law: Practice and Doctrine in Particular with Regard to the Law of Naval Warfare in the Low Countries from circa 1450 Until the Early 17th Century (Utrecht: Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1991).]

Roelofsen, C.G. "Grotius and the International Politics of the Seventeenth Century," in Hugo Grotius and International Relations (H. Bull, A. Roberts & B. Kingsbury, eds.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). [Reprinted in C.G. Roelofsen, Studies in the History of International Law: Practice and Doctrine in Particular with Regard to the Law of Naval Warfare in the Low Countries from circa 1450 Until the Early 17th Century (Utrecht: Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1991).]

Roelofsen, C.G. "Grotius and State Practice of His Day," 10 Grotiana 3-46 (1989). [Reprinted in C.G. Roelofsen, Studies in the History of International Law: Practice and Doctrine in Particular with Regard to the Law of Naval Warfare in the Low Countries from circa 1450 Until the Early 17th Century (Utrecht: Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1991).]

Roelofsen, C.G. Review of Anand, Origins and Development of the Law of the Sea, 31 Netherlands International Law Review 117 (1984).

Rogers, F.M. "Hakluyt as Translator," in The Hakluyt Handbook (D.B. Quinn, ed.; 2 vols.; London: Hakluyt Society, 1974).

Steinburg, Philip G. The Social Construction of the Oceans. Cambridge: University Press, 2001. [See esp. pp. 92 et seq.]

Toomer, G. J. John Selden: A Life in Scholarship. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. [See vol. 1, ch. 12, "Mare Clausum."]

Trevor-Roper, H. From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Vollenhoven, C. The Three Stages in the Evolution of the Law of Nations. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1919.

Vreeland, Hamilton. Hugo Grotius: The Father of the Modern Science of International Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 1917. [See esp. pp. 39-67.]

Wade, Thomas C. "Introductory Essay: The Freedom of the Sea," in Sir John Boroughs, The Sovereignty of the British Seas (Edinburgh: W. Green & Sons, 1920).

Wilkinson, John. "The First Declaration of the Freedom of the Seas: The Rhodian Sea Laws," appendix to Ch. XIX of the same author's paper, "A Tentative Program for Simulation of Historical ‘Ecology' of the Mediterranean," in The Mediterranean Marine Environment and Development of Region (Malta: Royal University of Malta Press, 1974).

Wilson, Eric. Savage Republic: De Indis of Hugo Grotius, Republicanism and Dutch Hegemony with the Early Modern World Systems (c.1600-1619). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2008.

Winstedt, Richard; & P.F. De Josselin De Jong, "Maritime Law of Malacca," 29 (Pt. 3) Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Aug. 1956).

Wright, Herbert F. "Some Lesser Known Works of Hugo Grotius," 7 Bibliotheca Visseriana 132 (1928). [Four works are reproduced, of which two are translations: one of Grotius's works on fisheries in his controversy with William Welwood, another a translation of extracts from Grotius's letters concerning international and natural law and fisheries. See esp. "Defense of Chapter V of the Mare Liberum."]

Zemanek, Karl. "Was Hugo Grotius Really in Favour of the Freedom of the Seas?", 1 Journal of the History of International Law 48 (1999).

Ziskind, Jonathan. "International Law and Ancient Sources: Grotius and Selden," 35 Review of Politics 537 (No. 4, 1973).

Freedom of the Seas, Part 8

Mike Widener — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:58:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 8

For the 17th century Mare liberum and Mare clausum were the centerpieces of the debate between advocates of exclusive and inclusive uses of ocean space. In England, Mare clausum reigned supreme as the authority on all questions of sovereignty at sea, although its authority on more mundane legal issues of maritime law yielded late in that century to Charles Molloy's De jure maritime et navali, or, A Treatise of Affaires Maritime, and of Commerce (1676), which dealt with mercantile questions such as bills of exchange, insurance and maritime loans.

Molloy, Charles (1646-1690). De jure maritimo et navali (London, 1682).
This popular work went through 12 editions between 1676 and 1778.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Neither Welwood nor Selden dealt decisively with the question of how far out to sea a sovereign’s territorial sea could extend: Welwood seemed to suggest one hundred miles, but left the issue open; Selden finessed it entirely. In time, British maritime power rendered such matters moot: as an old saw had it, "Britannia rules the waves – and waives the rules."

But by the end of the century, support was growing elsewhere for some limitation to the seaward extent of territorial waters. What emerged was the so-called "cannon shot rule", which deferred in theory to the idea that property rights could be acquired by actual occupation, and in practice to the effective range of shore-based cannon: about three nautical miles. The rule has long been associated with Cornelis van Bijnkershoek (1673-1743), a Dutch jurist who, especially in his De dominio maris (1702), advocated a middle ground between the extremes of Grotius and Selden, accepting both the freedom of states to navigate and exploit the resources the of the high seas and a right of coastal state to assert wide-ranging rights in a thus limited territorial sea.

Bijnkershoek, Cornelis van (1673-1743). De dominio maris (The Hague, 1703).
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

Viewed in historical perspective, what emerged from the 17th-century debate were not just these two legal regimes, but a more inclusive one – international law – to govern humanity's common interest in the use of shared space and shared resources, interest as to which the future may well offer exhibits of its own.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Accelerated Integrated JD-MBA

craigj — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:54:00 GMT

The Law School and Yale's School of Management (SOM) unveiled a pilot three-year joint degree program last spring for students interested in an integrated law and business curriculum. At the end of the three year Accelerate Integrated JD-MBA program (AI JD-MBA), students earn both a JD and an MBA. Yale is the third university in the country to offer a three-year JD-MBA and the first do so without requiring summer classes. The summer before the first year of the program and subsequent summers during the program are open, so students can pursue internships and other employment opportunities.

"The program will prepare students for the increasingly complex intersection of business and law," said former Dean Harold Koh. "Students will master analytical and quantitative skills that will be of value for a business law-related practice but also more broadly for careers as entrepreneurs and managers in business and non-profit organizations."

The new program supplements our existing four-year JD-MBA program, one of the most popular joint degree programs at YLS. As the name implies, the four-year JD-MBA allows students to complete both degrees in four years with no summer coursework. One of the highlights of this program (and most of our other joint degree programs) is the curricular and scheduling flexibility afforded to participants. Students in the four-year program are mostly free to choose which semesters they spend at which school, as long as total of five terms are spent at YLS and three are spent at SOM. Additionally, the four-year JD-MBA is not limited to SOM. Students have the ability to pursue their MBA at a different university.

In order to compress the rigorous JD-MBA curriculum into three years, participants lose some flexibility when compared to the four-year program. Students must begin the program at YLS, where they spend their first year. In the second year, students spend both semesters at SOM, but take one class in the spring at YLS. The third year is spent at YLS. When compared to the four-year program, students lose ability to take one term's worth of electives at YLS; two when compared to non-joint degree students.

Students pay regular JD tuition in their first year, a special tuition to SOM in their second year, and a special tuition to YLS in their third year. Need-based loans taken during the semesters in which students paid tuition to SOM are eligible for SOM's Loan Forgiveness Support. Need-based loans taken during the semesters in which students paid tuition to the YLS are eligible for COAP.

Applicants interested in the AI JD-MBA must apply to both YLS and SOM. The applications can either be submitted simultaneously or YLS students can apply to the program during their first year of law school. Detailed application instructions for simultaneous applicants and YLS 1Ls can be found on our website.

More information about the three-year AI JD-MBA and four-year JD-MBA programs, as well as our other joint degrees, can be found on our joint degree page. The AI JD-MBA Program has its own site hosted by the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. In addition to an overview of the program and application instructions, you can view videos of professors and alumni talking about the AI JD-MBA and the benefits of pursuing degrees in law and business.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 7

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:07:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 7

In supporting his case with a massive showing of state practice, Selden was able to draw upon historical research done by the Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, Sir John Borough, whose work, The Sovereignty of the British Seas Proved by Records, History, and the Municipall Lawes of the Kingdome, written in 1633, was published only posthumously in 1651.

Borough, John (d. 1643). The soveraignty of the British seas (London, 1739).
The third edition.
Collection of Edward Gordon.

Grotius, too, was able to draw upon earlier work. Some of his arguments had been anticipated by the writings of Alberico Gentili (1552-1608), an Italian émigré who became Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and at least as prominently, an admiralty lawyer in London, representing the king of Spain. Gentili died before the publication of Mare liberum, but in his notes in defense of Spanish claims, published posthumously in 1613 as Hispanicae advocationis, he organized the issues far more systematically than the youthful Grotius had been able to do in Mare liberum.

Like Grotius, Gentili said that under Roman law, consistently with natural law, the open sea was common property. But he recognized the gap between principle and practice, bridging it by distinguishing dominium (ownership) from jurisdictio (jurisdiction) – the latter, unlike the former, being applicable to the high seas. He also distinguished coastal waters from the high seas, insisting, however, that a coastal state’s right to control its territorial seas did not justify closing them to foreign navigation.

His ideas anticipated those of De jure belli ac pacis as well. In his use of phrases like ius inter gentes and societas humana, for example, Gentili may be said to have initiated the liberation of the law of nations conceptually from both Roman law and the guardianship of theology. Not until the late 19th century, however, was the extent of influence on Grotius recognized by scholars. Only then did Gentili's reputation as a founder of modern international law begin to rival that of Grotius himself.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Gentili, Alberico (1552-1608). Hispanicae advocationis libri duo (Hanover, 1613).
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 6

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:50:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 6

William Welwood's work eventually drew a response from a Dutch lawyer, Dirck Graswinckel, entitled Mare liberi vindiciae adversus Gulielmum Welwodum (1653), but its relative obscurity today owes more to the publication in 1635 of Mare clausum, by John Selden (1594-1654), an English jurist, scholar and polymath whose erudition rivaled that of Grotius himself. Selden had begun researching and writing a refutation of Mare liberum soon after its publication, even before Welwood's two treatises appeared. He had completed it by around 1618, by which time, however, a coup d'etat had taken place in the Netherlands, Grotius had been imprisoned, and relations between England and the new government were unsettled. King James was reluctant anyway to provoke a dispute with Denmark, which had extensive claims of its own in the North Atlantic. Under the circumstances, the moment seemed inauspicious for a verbal assault on Grotius and the freedom of the seas – and James refused to publish Mare clausum.

Selden apparently abandoned the project for nearly seventeen years. By then, Grotius, having escaped from prison in 1621 and living in exile in France, had published his more mature and celebrated masterpiece, De jure belli ac pacis (1625), later translated into English as The Rights of Warre and Peace (1654), in which he toned down some of the extravagant positions he had taken in his youthful defense of the seizure of the Santa Catarina, constructing instead a more sophisticated basis for a law of nature and nations independent of empire or religious guardianship that was, not coincidentally, notably less lenient in justifying the resort to armed force.

By then, Selden's personal status had changed, too. Having become embroiled in parliamentary politics, he himself had been imprisoned and was now ensconced in the Tower of London. James meanwhile had been succeeded by Charles I, whose maritime policy was more aggressive than that of either of his two predecessors. In returning to his attack on Mare liberum, therefore, Selden was faced not only with the task of exposing weaknesses in Mare liberum, as Welwood had done and as he himself presumably had already done in his 1618 draft, but also with the more demanding one of taking into account the comprehensive legal regime Grotius had subsequently presented in De jure belli ac pacis. And he had to do both in a way that ingratiated himself with Charles.

Selden's treatise, like Grotius's, is remarkable for its erudition, too much so for modern readers, who tend to see in both works an excess of pedantry, but decisively impressive to the two men's own contemporaries. Selden conceded the innocence of harmless navigation and commerce, but maintained that restrictions on them do not necessarily violate the law of nature and the law of nations. He purported to show that the open sea is not everywhere common, is capable of appropriation, and in fact from time to time had been appropriated and occupied. As to the Spanish and Portuguese claims, whose legitimacy England continued to deny, Selden said that, while on general principles they could be valid, in actual practice neither of the two countries ever acquired valid title or command to the areas they claimed.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Selden, John (1584-1654). Mare clausum (London, 1635).
The first edition of Selden’s Mare clausum is also famous as the first use of Arabic type in England. The map depicts what ancient geographers called "the British sea."
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Selden, John (1584-1654). Mare clausum: the right and dominion of the sea (London, 1663).
The second edition of the English translation of Mare clausum.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Of the law of warre and peace (London, 1655).
The second English edition, appearing only a year after the first. The portrait bears Grotius's motto, "Ruit Hora" ("Time flies"), reflecting his busy and productive career as a jurist, diplomat, and author.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 5

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:35:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 5

England's own claims to maritime sovereignty ran counter to both Spain and Portugal's and to Holland's. Even during the reign of Queen Elizabeth – and notwithstanding her rebuke to the Spanish ambassador – England claimed sovereign rights seaward. During her reign these rights extended to the waters immediately adjacent to its coast, but her successors extended them out into the Atlantic, from Cape Finisterre in Spain around the British Isles, and in the North Sea to the coast of Norway.

The first British treatise on the law of the sea appeared in 1590. Written by William Welwood (fl. 1566-1624), a professor of mathematics and then law at St. Andrews (Scotland), The Sea Law of Scotland defended royal dominion over the seas out to a distance of eighty miles off the Scottish coast. The work pleased the king of Scotland, James VI, who had objected strongly, though ineffectively, to what he regarded as the intrusion of the Dutch herring fleet into Scots waters, and who happily rewarded Welwood for lending legal support to his cause.

When James succeeded to the crown of England, following Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, he issued a proclamation claiming all fisheries along the British and Irish coasts, and prohibiting foreign vessels from fishing in these waters without a royal license. To support his position, he asked Welwood to refute Mare liberum directly.

This Welwood did in two treatises: An Abridgement of All the Sea-Lawes (1613) and, in an amplified Latin version inspired in part by James's wife, Queen Anne of Denmark, De dominio maris (1615). Quoting extensively from biblical sources and Roman lawyers, Welwood rejected Grotius's claim that the waters of the world had always been regarded as indivisible; and defended the right of a coastal state to fish and to navigate – and to impose taxes with respect to either – in the waters adjacent to its coasts. Welwood is said to have been the first to clearly enunciate a coastal state's authority over living resources adjacent to its shores. What is more, and of more than passing interest, he based his argument, at least in part, upon the risk of exhaustion of fisheries posed by otherwise unregulated promiscuous use.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Welwood, William (fl. 1578-1622). An abridgement of all sea-lawes (London, 1613).
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 4

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 4

As it happens, the publication of Mare liberum came too late to influence negotiations with Spain. It served instead to ignite a fierce debate over the freedom of the seas that continued throughout the 17th century – what later scholars were to call the "Battle of the Books." Grotius contended that nature and public utility alike forbid the acquisition of property rights in the sea. Unlike land, the sea (and the air) cannot in practice be occupied, demonstrating that nature intended it to be free to all to use. Being inexhaustible in use, moreover, it is not susceptible of occupation, which is necessary when the utility of things can be preserved only if they become private property.

The defense of Portugal's imperial claims in the East Indies fell initially to Seraphim de Freitas, a Portuguese theologian-jurist, professor at the University of Valladolid, in a treatise published in 1625 under the name De iusto imperio Lusitanorum Asiatico (On the Just Empire of the Portuguese in Asia). Vastly larger and longer than Grotius's mere pamphlet, De iusto imperio was highly critical not only of the youthful Grotius's arguments, but of its factual inaccuracies and misleading references and inferences as well.

Freitas contended that the right to free trade and navigation, whatever its roots in natural law, had never become a part of the law of nations. A sovereign could exclude foreigners from his territories or commerce and could forbid his subjects to trade with them. He conceded that the pope lacked an abstract right to accord dominion over newly discovered territories and peoples, but insisted that his authority as the spiritual dominus mundi entitled him to grant an exclusive right to spread the Christian faith and civilization. Since, to be effective, this right necessarily involves both trade and limited conquest, the pope had the authority to grant Portugal-Spain the right to exclude other powers from the east.

De iusto imperio was expanded upon four years later by a Spanish jurist named Juan de Solórzano Pereira (1575-1655), in a treatise entitled Disputationem de Indiarum iure. Scarcely known or written about by English-speaking scholars, De Indiarum iure is regarded by some Spanish scholars as the most systematic juridical formulation of the legitimacy of Spain and Portugal's 17th century claims. Unlike Freitas, Solórzano Pereira said that, regardless of the legitimacy of the 15th century papal grants on which they were said to be based, Portugal's actual control and occupation of the new territories were sufficient in themselves to satisfy the requirements for retrospective ownership (prescription) recognized in both Roman and customary law.

Neither Freitas's nor Solórzano Pereira's treatise had as much influence in the 17th century as their intellectual content warranted, perhaps because they were too learned and too long, but in any event because the center of intellectual interest and political power was shifting from Spain to England.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Solórzano Pereira, Juan de (1575-1655). De Indiarum jure (Lyons, 1672).
This work became the definitive treatise on the laws governing Spain’s overseas colonies.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 3

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 3

The tension generated by Spanish and Portuguese claims to maritime dominion intensified at the start of the 17th century. An exponential growth in world trade and, especially, aggressive efforts by the Dutch East India Company to protect its right to engage in it, brought the issue to a head. The Company was organized by the Dutch government in 1602 with a view to expanding the capital base, and enhancing the collective security, of the individual ship owners and captains who up to that point had had to fend off Spanish and Portuguese naval vessels on their own.

The stage was set for a dramatic confrontation. It took place in February 1603, when a small fleet belonging to the Company attacked and overwhelmed a richly laden Portuguese vessel, the Santa Catarina, near Singapore. The captured vessel and cargo were brought back to the Netherlands, where a Dutch court ordered the proceeds of its sale distributed to the Company, the admiral of the fleet and his crew. A furious row erupted over the legality of the seizure, which struck many as immoral – in fact, scarcely distinguishable from outright piracy.

The case presented complex legal issues. The need to defend its right to participate in the East India trade had arisen in the course of the young Dutch republic's war of independence against Spain, which by then held dominion over Portugal and regarded the Dutch as no more than rebellious subjects. Moreover, as some of the Company's dissident shareholders themselves pointed out, the Company had been organized as a private mercantile enterprise, not as a vehicle for engaging in an aggressive war, much less for enriching itself in the process.

Some of the shareholders threatened to withdraw their capital, to form a new enterprise in competition, even to make common cause with a French company projected by Henry IV. The Company’s very existence was thought to be at risk – and with it the future of the young republic's burgeoning overseas commerce.

To win over popular support, the Company turned to Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), then only twenty-one years old and too new to the practice of law to have been hired to handle the Santa Catarina litigation itself, but already renown throughout Europe for his prodigious erudition, his knowledge of the wisdom and practices of nations from biblical and classical times. Henry IV himself had greeted Grotius's arrival in France as a fifteen-year-old diplomatic attaché by having a medal struck in his honor, declaring the young man to be nothing less than "the miracle of Holland." In effect, Grotius's defense of the Company's position was tantamount to a celebrity endorsement, as valuable to the Company in this respect as by the persuasiveness of whatever legal argument he could muster in support of its actions.

Grotius immediately set about preparing a treatise that would portray the Company's action in the context of a comprehensive theory of the law of prize. But before he could finish it, it had already been overtaken by events. The dissident shareholders had made good on their threat, to the extent of withdrawing their capital, but had failed to organize another company or to persuade the French to do so. Just as important, the Company’s commercial success had precipitated a change in public sentiment, effectively silencing critics of its aggressiveness. Moreover, and perhaps even more critically, an end was in sight to Holland's decades-old war of independence from Spain. The moment, perforce, was inauspicious for a verbal assault on Spain and Portugal's claims to a global monopoly. Grotius's monograph, substantially completed by 1604, went unpublished – for the time being.

Grotius seems to have been dissatisfied with the work, anyway. In a letter written in November 1606, he says: "My little work on Indian affairs is finished, but I do not know whether it ought to appear in its present form, or only those parts which relate to the general law of war and prize."

By 1608, however, events had taken another turn. The Company was becoming increasingly alarmed over reports that, in pursuit of a truce with Spain and of obtaining its recognition of Dutch independence, the Dutch government was prepared to concede Spain’s right to'exclude the Dutch from the eastern seas. At the Company's urging, Grotius returned to his manuscript, rewriting the introduction and expanding the conclusion of one of its chapters, Chapter XII – the one in which he dealt specifically with the legal basis of the freedom of the seas.

This one chapter, entitled Mare liberum, was published the following spring, by itself, as a pamphlet. No mention was made of the identity of its author (although the fact that it was none other than the celebrated Grotius quickly became known locally and in England). The rest of the monograph was consigned to Grotius's personal papers. Though alluded to in his private correspondence, its existence was practically unknown until a manuscript copy was discovered nearly three centuries later and published, in 1868, under the title De jure praedae (On the Law of Prize).

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). De jure praedae commentarius [facsimile] (New York, 1952).
A facsimile of the manuscript Grotius completed in 1604, showing Chapter XII, which was published five years later as Mare liberum.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). De jure praedae commentarius (The Hague, 1868).
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Mare liberum (Leiden, 1618).
The 2nd edition of Mare liberum, and the first to bear Grotius’s name.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Hugo Grotius Mari libero et P. Merula De maribus (Leiden, 1633).
This edition includes a related work on maritime affairs by the Dutch scholar Paulus Merula.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Vrye zeevaert (Haarlem, 1636).
An early Dutch translation of Mare liberum.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 2

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 2

Early efforts to codify maritime law did little to resolve claims growing out of acrimonious political disputes over rights to trade with the Americas and the East Indies. The most extensive of these claims were ones made beginning in the mid 15th century by Spain and Portugal, respectively, following the discoveries of the New World and maritime trade routes to Asia. Initially based upon papal grants, the claims were said to have been established by an award made by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, perfected the following year in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Together they purported to justify the exclusion of other states not only from sharing in dominion over the newly discovered lands, but from navigating the trade routes and carrying on profitable trade with their inhabitants, as well. The two countries’ rival claims were resolved by fixing a line drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, with Spain receiving all the lands west of the line, Portugal those to the east. Portugal then claimed sovereignty over the Indian Ocean and the south Atlantic, Spain over the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

The pope's authority to grant these rights did not go uncontested, even within Catholic Spain itself. As early as 1564, in Illustrium controversiarum, a prominent Spanish jurist named Fernando Vázquez Menchaca (1512-1569) attacked Venice and Genoa's claims to dominion over parts of the Mediterranean, defending freedom of the seas itself. Other European states rejected Spain and Portugal's claims even more energetically, not only because, as had quickly become apparent, the logic underlying the line purportedly dividing their dominions had been undercut by the realization that it could be approached both from the east and the west, but for the practical reason that the two countries were manifestly unable to enforce them.

Even Queen Elizabeth of England, while herself demanding that foreign vessels entering waters claimed by England strike their topsails and take in their flags in recognition of Britain’s sovereign jurisdiction, declared that the exclusion of foreign merchants from Indian commerce was contrary to the law of nations. "The use of the sea and the air is common to all," she told the Spanish ambassador, "neither can any title to the Ocean belong to any people or private man, forasmuch as neither Nature, nor regard of the public use and custom permitteth any possession thereof."

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Vázquez Menchaca, Fernando (1512-1569). Controversiarum usu frequentium libri tres (Barcelona, 1563).
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

Freedom of the Seas, Part 1

Mike Widener — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:42:00 GMT

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius’s Mare Liberum
Part 1

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Mare liberum (Leiden, 1609).
Grotius launched his illustrious career in international law with this little book that initially did not bear his name.
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

This exhibit marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Hugo Grotius’s Mare liberum, a short work, originally published as a pamphlet, which produced the first effective argument for the freedom of the seas and, with Grotius’s more mature work, De jure belli ac pacis (1625), lent substance and prestige to the idea of an international law in the service of the common good.

In principle, the Roman Civil Law had already established that navigation on the high seas was open to all. But in practice the principle was frequently disregarded – even by Rome itself, when its naval power was at its height, and by others after its decline. With the growth of maritime commerce, especially in the later Middle Ages, maritime powers asserted dominion over wide areas of ocean space: Venice to dominion over the Adriatic Sea (Guido Pace, De dominio maris Adriatico, 1619); Genoa the Ligurian (Pietro Battista Borgo, De dominio serenessimae Genuinsis Reipublica in mari Liguria, 1641); Sweden, Denmark and Poland to all or parts of the Baltic.

Early efforts to codify maritime law, such as the 12th century Laws of Oleron and the Consolat de Mar (ca. 1484) had codified admiralty law on a range of subjects, including, for example, ship ownership, discipline and punishment of crews, and salvage.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Pace, Giulio (1550-1635). De dominio maris Hadriatici desceptatio (Lyons, 1619).
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Libro llamado Consulado de mar (Valencia, 1539).
A translation from the original Catalan into Spanish of “The Book of the Consulate of the Sea,” the basis for much of Europe’s maritime law.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

“Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law,” curated by Edward Gordon and Michael Widener, is on display October 2009 through January 2010 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

[Cases] ECHR Chamber Judgment in the case of Lombardi Vallauri v. Italy (duty to give reasons)

akis.psygkas — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:19:00 GMT

The European Court of Human Rights (a Chamber of seven judges) notified in writing today its judgment in the case of Lombardi Vallauri v. Italy (application no. 39128/05). The Court held that the Catholic University of Milan, which is a public law entity ("personne juridique de droit public"), should have given reasons for refusing to employ a lecturer who had not been approved by the Ecclesiastical authorities; hence, it found a violation of Articles 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Principal facts

More specifically, the applicant, Mr. Lombardi Vallauri, is an Italian national who began teaching legal philosophy in 1976 at the Faculty of Law of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) in Milan, on the basis of contracts renewed on an annual basis. When a competition for the post was advertised for the 1998/99 academic year, he applied. The Congregation for Catholic Education, an institution of the Holy See, informed by a letter the President of the University that some of the applicant's views were "in clear opposition to Catholic doctrine" and that "in the interests of truth and of the well being of students and the University" the applicant should no longer teach there. The University President wrote to the Dean of the Faculty of Law, informing him of the Congregation's position. The Faculty Board took note of the Holy See's position and decided not to examine the applicant's application, since one of the conditions for admission to the competition, namely the approval of the Congregation for Catholic Education, had not been met.

The applicant applied to the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court to have the decisions of the Faculty Board and the ecclesiastical authority set aside. He argued that the decisions in question were unconstitutional because they breached his right to equality, freedom of instruction and freedom of religion. The Regional Administrative Court rejected the application on the grounds, inter alia, that adequate reasons had been given for the Faculty Board's refusal to consider the applicant's candidacy, and that the revised Concordat between the Holy See and the Italian Republic did not lay down any requirement to state the religious grounds for refusing approval. The court further held that neither the Faculty Board nor the court itself had jurisdiction to examine the legitimacy of the Holy See's decision, which had emanated from a foreign State. The court also pointed out that teaching staff were free to choose whether or not to adhere to the principles of the Catholic faith.

Mr. Vallauri then appealed to the Consiglio di Stato reiterating the lack of reasons given for the Faculty Board's decision and contesting the lack of jurisdiction of the administrative court. The Consiglio di Stato dismissed the appeal. It stated that the Italian administrative and judicial authorities could not depart from a Constitutional Court judgment, according to which the fact that teaching appointments at the Catholic University were subject to the approval of the Holy See was compatible with Articles 33 and 19 of the Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of instruction and freedom of religion respectively. The Consiglio di Stato further observed that "no authority in the Republic may rule on the findings of the ecclesiastical authority".

Complaint before the ECHR

Relying on Article 10 of the Convention, Mr Lombardi Vallauri complained that the decision of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, for which no reasons had been given and which had been taken without any genuine adversarial debate, had breached his right to freedom of expression.

Relying also on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention with regard to the fairness of the proceedings and his right of access to a court, the applicant complained of the domestic courts' failure to rule on the lack of reasons for the Faculty Board's decision, thereby restricting his ability to appeal against that decision and to instigate an adversarial debate. Mr. Lombardo Vallauri also complained of the fact that the Faculty Board had confined itself to taking note of the Congregation's decision, which had also been taken without any adversarial debate.

Decision of the ECHR

The Court considered that, in omitting to explain how the applicant's views, which supposedly ran counter to Catholic doctrine, were liable to affect the University's interests, the Faculty Board had not given adequate reasons for its decision.

The Court went on to observe that, although it was not for the domestic authorities to examine the substance of the Congregation's doctrinal stance, the administrative courts, in the interests of the principle of adversarial debate, should have addressed the lack of reasons for the Faculty Board decision.

In conclusion, the Court considered that the University's interest in dispensing teaching based on Catholic doctrine could not extend to impairing the very substance of the procedural guarantees afforded to the applicant by Article 10 of the Convention. Accordingly, in the particular circumstances of the case, the interference with Mr. Lombardi Vallauri's freedom of expression had not been "necessary in a democratic society". The Court therefore held, by six votes to one, that there had been a violation of Article 10 of the Convention in its procedural aspect.

For the same reasons the Court held that the applicant had not had effective access to a court, and found a violation of Article 6 § 1 by six votes to one.

In Memoriam: Charles J. Tanenbaum

Mike Widener — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:41:00 GMT

I was sorry to learn that Charles J. Tanenbaum, Yale Law School Class of 1937, passed away on Oct. 17, 2009, at age 94. Mr. Tanenbaum was a noted book collector and philanthropist. The Lillian Goldman Law Library was one among a great many institutions that benefited from his generosity.

Like many other great book & manuscript collectors, Charles Tanenbaum's motive for collecting was not to acquire and hoard, but to discover and share. He curated over thirty exhibitions at major U.S. libraries, including Harvard, Penn, Stanford, and the Grolier Club, where he was a member for over 40 years.

Here at Yale, Mr. Tanenbaum endowed the Charles J. Tanenbaum Fund, which supports rare book acquisitions relating to the history of the legal profession. From his personal collection, he donated an important letter from Chief Justice John Marshall (described here) and Yale-College Subject to the General Assembly (New-Haven: Printed by Thomas and Samuel Green, 1784), a brief arguing for the Connecticut General Assembly's right to regulate Yale College, by the prominent lawyer Samuel Whittelsey Dana.

The last gift we received from Mr. Tanenbaum was not from early American history, but from Mr. Tanenbaum's personal history. It is a letter of recommendation from Yale law professor Underhill Moore, a letter that documents not only the anti-Semitism prevalent in the 1930s but also the person that Professor Moore described as "an unusually valuable man." The letter appears below. I extend my deepest condolences to his widow, Mrs. Szilvia Szmuk-Tanenbaum, and his daughter Ann, for their loss.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

New exhibit: Freedom of the Seas, 1609

Mike Widener — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:04:00 GMT

New exhibit...

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law

October 2009 - January 2010
Rare Book Exhibition Gallery
Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library
Yale Law School

In 1609, a little pamphlet touched off a big debate that shaped modern international law. The Lillian Goldman Law Library marks the 400th anniversary of this event with its exhibition, "Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law." It will be on display through January 2010 in the Yale Law School.

At the dawn of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company commissioned a young prodigy named Hugo Grotius to prepare a legal argument rejecting Spanish and Portuguese claims of dominion over the oceans around their overseas empires. His essay, Mare Liberum ("On the Freedom of the Seas") touched off a "Battle of the Books." What eventually emerged was a regime of international law to govern humanity's common interest in shared resources.

At the center of this battle was Grotius and England's leading legal scholar, John Selden. The exhibition documents their contributions and those from other European jurists, with books from the Rare Book Collection of the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Harvard Law School Library, and the private collection of Edward Gordon.

The exhibition was curated by Edward Gordon, Yale Law School Class of 1963, and Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian. Gordon, past President of the American Branch of the International Law Association, was formerly professor of international law at Albany Law School, and has also taught at Rutgers, George Washington University, American University, Wellesley College, and the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

The Rare Books Exhibition Gallery is located in the lower level of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (Level L2), directly in front of the Paskus-Danziger Rare Book Reading Room.

For those unable to visit the exhibit in person, it will appear in installments here in the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.

For more information, phone Mike Widener at (203) 432-4494 or email him at <mike.widener@yale.edu>.

The illustration:
Hugo Grotius Mari libero et P. Merula De maribus (Leiden, 1633). Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

[News] President Obama defends new consumer agency

akis.psygkas — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:58:00 GMT

Washington Post has an article today on President Obama scolding business groups that have fought his plan to create a new federal agency (Consumer Financial Protection Agency) to oversee mortgages, credit cards and other consumer financial products, casting the debate as a battle between his administration and Wall Street.

According to the newspaper, the proposed agency has become the most divisive, partisan element of the administration's wide-ranging plan to overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system. Republicans on congressional committees considering regulatory reform have almost uniformly opposed it. Banks and other financial firms, along with armies of lobbyists, have flooded Capitol Hill carrying the message that the new agency would add an unnecessary layer of government regulation, increase costs, stifle financial innovation and ultimately curtail choices for consumers. Obama disputed that the new agency would restrict consumer choice or limit meaningful innovation. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said, arguing that "in a financial system that's never been more complicated, it has never been more important to have a watchdog function like the one we've proposed." The House Financial Services Committee plans to edit and vote on the legislation beginning as early as next week.

On the other side of the Atlantic, there are different agencies for consumers of financial products, although they seem to be closer to ombudsmen and, consequently, probably less powerful than the contemplated U.S. agency might prove to be. In the European Union, the European Commission launched in 2001 the Financial Dispute Resolution Network (FIN-NET). FIN-NET is a financial dispute resolution network of national out-of-court complaint schemes in the European Economic Area countries (the European Union Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) that are responsible for handling disputes between consumers and financial services providers, i.e. banks, insurance companies, investment firms and others. Currently FIN-NET has 46 members from 21 European Economic Area countries. More information about the members can be found here. It would be interesting to hear more about individual country cases. Are agencies entrusted with overseeing financial services in other places part of the respective ministries or independent public bodies? What is the scope of their powers? Do they resemble Ombudsmen or do they also possess regulatory authority?

Draft Council conclusions on Better Regulation in the EU

akis.psygkas — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:08:00 GMT

On October 6, 2009, the Council of the European Union publicized its draft conclusions on Better Regulation for the 3-4 December 2009 Competitiveness Council. The text of these conclusions is available here.

In its draft conclusions, the Council acknowledges that important progress has been achieved both at EU level and in the member states in taking the Better Regulation Agenda forward; it stresses, however, that more needs to be done.

With respect to Impact Assessment, the Council considers that there is scope for quality improvement as regards, inter alia, evaluation of alternative policy options, transparency and quantification of administrative burdens as well as other costs and benefits. It also invites the member states to continue to establish or further develop their impact assessment systems, including providing their civil servants with training in handling impact assessments.

Furthermore, the Council stresses the need for early and timely stakeholder consultation, using appropriate methods, throughout the policy-making cycle to enhance regulatory quality; in addition, it reaffirms the importance of enhancing access to law and the need for clear and simple language in order to make the regulatory framework easier to comply with. Therefore, it invites the Commission to

- enhance the use of consultation during the whole policy-making cycle;

- consider the creation of an easily accessible multi-lingual website, a "single entry point", with updated relevant information on policies and initiatives related to business.

E-Resource Access Problems

ylslibrary — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:17:00 GMT

As of July 2009, Yale tightened security for online access all over the campus. To access the wireless network at the Yale Law School, laptop users can log on through VPN, Yale Secure (with netID), or Yale Guest. VPN and Yale Secure wireless connections allow full access to all licensed e-resources; however, people who log on as Yale Guest will not be able to access any licensed resources. For members of the Yale Law community, instructions for configuring laptops can be found on YLS Inside under Department Documents -> Wireless Networking. Instructions for Windows Vista also work for Windows 7, see instructions here. If you have problems connecting to the wireless network, Law School ITS User Support is available to help. Located on L2 of the Law Library in the ITS Computer Cluster, the computer help desk is open Monday - Friday, 8:30am - 5:00pm to address your concerns. You can also reach them by email or phone (203-432-0821).

The International Festival of Arts and Ideas

craigj — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:46:00 GMT

New Haven can be a wonderful place to spend the summer.   The campus quiets down, but that doesn't mean that the activities stop. In fact, one of New Haven's most famous events, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas takes place in June. The Festival's main stage on the New Haven Green features days of free performances that turn out the local community. Performances are also held at theaters throughout New Haven and the concerts come right up to our doorstep here at the Law School, with the courtyard providing an intimate venue for a night of music. (Check out the pictures below!)

The International Festival of Arts and Ideas just celebrated its fourteenth year, and has become renowned as one of the world's most significant arts festivals.   The Festival is a global event in New Haven. Each summer, the Festival showcases hundreds of international artists and speakers from over 75 countries in a broad array of genres.   The Festival brings U.S. premieres to New Haven, operas to the Green, internationally recognized names and dynamic, emerging, local artists to a new audience. And to top it all, much of the Festival programming is free.

The 2009 Festival, themed Global Identities/Local Heroes, featured performances by artists such as Jason Moran, the Barabbas Theater Company and the Mark Morris Dance Group. (Check out the NYT review of the Mark Morris Dance Group performance here: www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/arts/dance/27dido.html?pagewanted=all).

Mavis Staples and They Might be Giants could be seen in free performances on the New Haven Green, along with performances by local and international artists. The courtyard concert series brought alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, Tania Libertad, whose singing blends the Afro-Peruvian tradition with many other styles, and the international lyrical sound of Rupa & The April Fishes here to the Law School.

The Festival also brings ideas to New Haven. From conversations about the Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights and Confronting the Global Economic Crisis, to Food: Pleasure, Policy and Public Health, this year's Festival brought together an inspirational group of people from around the world to think about the challenges facing us on a local and global level. Attendees also had the opportunity to converse about the arts with novelist Frank McCourt, choreographer Mark Morris, and soul singer Mavis Staples, among many others.

Food enthusiasts were able to tour the kitchens of local restaurants and enjoy specialty dinners from the chefs.   I didn't sign up early enough, but the Flavors from Iberia to Latin America tour, featuring Ibiza, Soul de Cuba and Geronimo sounded fantastic! If you want to attend one of the dinners next year - be sure to sign up early!

To learn more about the Festival or if you plan to be in the New Haven area next summer, keep a watch on the Festival's website (www.artidea.org) for the plans for June, 2010. Once the schedule is announced, tickets for the more popular events go quickly - so sign up if you see something you like. Or you can always stop by the New Haven Green to catch one of the many free performances taking place throughout the Festival.

Fish and Fiche

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

To answer the most frequently asked question of the week....

The fish are back!

right next to (but not to be confused with) the fiche, on the UES.