Thirteenth Amendment and the Regulation of Custom

Custom is an underdeveloped concept in Thirteenth Amendment jurisprudence. While a substantial body of work has explored the technical meaning of custom as it applies to § 1983 and, to a lesser extent, Congress’s power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment, few scholars have offered sustained treatment of custom as a way to understand the meaning and scope of the Thirteenth Amendment. This gap exists despite the fact that Congress specifically identified custom as a subject of regulation when it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and despite the fact that the Thirteenth Amendment operates directly on the behavior of private parties. The fact that the Thirteenth Amendment can be applied to custom has important implications for how the Amendment should be construed. In particular, the concept of custom — especially as it relates to practices that upheld the slave system in the South — helps give shape and content to the other undefined terms the Thirteenth Amendment has generated: the “badges,” “incidents,” and “relics” of slavery. Ultimately, the concept of custom can help guide policymakers and judges who must consider the scope, the limitations, and the continuing relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment in the twenty-first century

[Review of] Carol Trosset. Welshness Performed: Welsh Concepts of Person and Society

Wales, ruled by native princes until the thirteenth-century and subsequently governed from London, contains a population of about three million, twenty percent of which speak an indigenous language

Pre-Eighteenth-Century Traditions of Revivalism: Damascus in the Thirteenth Century

This article examines whether it is possible to trace eighteenth and nineteenth-century revivalist thought to earlier ‘medieval’ examples. The discussion is centred on the issue of ijtihad/taqlid, which featured prominently in revivalist thought. Taking the example of scholars in thirteenth-century Damascus, it firstly compares the respective readings of ijtihad/taqlid, by focusing on one individual, Abu Shama (d. 1267). It secondly asks whether a scholar like Abu Shama who had adopted a reading similar to later revivalists, also took a critical and oppositional stand against large sections of his contemporary society, i.e. a revivalist posture. It is this article’s main contention that the example of Abu Shama shows the need to study in more detail possible revivalist traditions prior to the ‘grand’ movements. The combination of the history of ideas and social history might allow a deeper understanding of how and in what contexts calls for reform and opposition to the current state of affairs were expressed

White Cartels, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the History of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.

In 2008, Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. turned forty. In Jones, the U.S. Supreme Court held for the first time that Congress can use its enforcement power under the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, to prohibit private racial discrimination in the sale of property. Jones temporarily awoke the Thirteenth Amendment and its enforcement legislation--the Civil Rights Act of 1866--from a century-long slumber. Moreover, it recognized an economic reality: racial discrimination by private actors can be as debilitating as racial discrimination by public actors. In doing so, Jones veered away from three decades of civil rights doctrine--a doctrine that had focused primarily on the Fourteenth, rather than the Thirteenth, Amendment, and on public actors, rather than on private actors. Further, by applying the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to private discrimination, Jones acknowledged the nineteenth-century roots of economic arguments that scholars use today to critique the relationship between private and public power. Yet, despite its importance, Jones largely has been relegated to a squib in textbooks. Few scholars have attempted to analyze Jones in light of other, analogous types of discriminatory behavior by private groups--especially cartel behavior. And, unlike more famous civil rights cases, like Brown v. Board of Education, almost nothing is written about the people of Jones--the litigants, the lawyers, and the judges behind the caption. This Article addresses that neglect. First, it ties economic theories about racial discrimination together with the history of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and its subsequent interpretation in Jones. It explains how Congress\u27s exercise of Thirteenth Amendment power to govern private economic relationships during Reconstruction gave important, but unacknowledged, intellectual credence to the antitrust movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Second, it explores the human story behind Jones, tracking the narrative of the Joneses, their counsel, the judges, and their lives after the decision. Finally, it explains how Jones\u27s recognition of the interrelationship between public and private coercion can help scholars, lawmakers, and jurists define the contours of Thirteenth Amendment power

The development of witchcraft in the thirteenth century

It was the purpose of this study to trace the conditions during the thirteenth century which, along with prior supernatural beliefs, led to the development of witchcraft in that century. With emphasis placed on the thirteenth century Church, and social, intellectual and economic changes certain conclusions appear valid. For thousands of years before the thirteenth century primitive man believed in supernatural beings. Ancient mythology abounded with references to witches. Early medieval Europe, primarily France, southern Germany, and surrounding areas with similar cultural inheritance which are the areas of this study, knew much of witches and witchcraft. However, until the thirteenth century there was no undue concern over the witches1 activities. The thirteenth century experienced a number of abrupt changes which affected all members of society to some degree. As feudalism dissolved, the social structure underwent unsettling changes. Economic prosperity affected the mental outlook of many; earthly concerns preempted eternal considerations. Towns multiplied and brought peasants into unfamiliar surroundings. Scholastics resolved the supernatural imaginings into realities which the Church was quick to grasp as the cause of mankind's ills. They organized the ancient myths into a vast system of demonology. They provided the facts for distribution to the masses to accept with fear and trembling

And We cast upon his throne a mere body: A Historiographical Reading of Q. 38:34

This paper focuses on Q. 38:34 from the perspective of early and medieval works of Islamic historiography and collections of tales of the prophets: the early tenth century works of 'Umara b. Wathima and Tabari, the eleventh century Tales of the Prophets by Tha'labi, the twelfth century folkloric collection of Kisa'i, along with Ibn 'Asakir's History of Damascus, the thirteenth century world history by Ibn al-Athir, and the fourteenth century historiographical work by Ibn Kathir. These various works are viewed not as any particular stage in the development of a genre, but as variations on a (Qur'anic) theme, and the avenue of medieval historiographers and storytellers is utilised as a bridge to explore various possible interpretations of the Qur'anic passage. Historiographers and storytellers provide us with an illustration of how lessons of admonition implied in the Qur'anic text were perceived in medieval Islamic society. They also, as will become clear, provide a picture of Solomon that is consistent with the Qur'anic figure as a whole

Review of Society and Homicide in Thirteenth-Century England

JAMES GIVEN has produced the first systematic book-length treatment of the sociology of medieval English crime. His work does not pretend to be comprehensive: it deals only with homicide. Nor does it cover more than a century, the thirteenth; the author has wisely left the earlier system of criminal law, based on private compensation, to other scholars, and he says just enough about late thirteenth- and early fourteenth- century social and legal change to suggest he believes that that period, too, must await its own interpretation. Still, the social history of homicide in the thirteenth century proves itself fascinating terrain, and we shall better understand what came before and after in the light of Given\u27s account

From Fibonacci to the mathematics of cows and quantum circuitry

The Fibonacci sequence is a famously well-known integer sequence from the thirteenth century which has transcended its original motivation. It possesses many interested and varied applications within architecture, engineering and science. Less well known is the Narayana sequence which itself has interesting and wide-ranging Fibonacci-type connections. In this paper, we shall recall Narayana's original motivation that gives rise to the sequence bearing his name. We also provide an interesting application of this sequence to the construction to quantum gate circuitry used in quantum computation

Review of Society and Homicide in Thirteenth-Century England

JAMES GIVEN has produced the first systematic book-length treatment of the sociology of medieval English crime. His work does not pretend to be comprehensive: it deals only with homicide. Nor does it cover more than a century, the thirteenth; the author has wisely left the earlier system of criminal law, based on private compensation, to other scholars, and he says just enough about late thirteenth- and early fourteenth- century social and legal change to suggest he believes that that period, too, must await its own interpretation. Still, the social history of homicide in the thirteenth century proves itself fascinating terrain, and we shall better understand what came before and after in the light of Given\u27s account

Fish for the city: meta-analysis of archaeological cod remains and the growth of London’s northern trade

The growth of medieval cities in Northern Europe placed new demands on food supply, and led to the import of fish from increasingly distant fishing grounds. Quantitative analysis of cod remains from London provides revealing insight into the changing patterns of supply that can be related to known historical events and circumstances. In particular it identifies a marked increase in imported cod from the thirteenth century AD. That trend continued into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after a short downturn, perhaps attributable to the impact of the Black Death, in the mid fourteenth century. The detailed pattern of fluctuating abundance illustrates the potential of archaeological information that is now available from the high-quality urban excavations conducted in London and similar centres during recent decades