First Things First

Fiction by Mary A.B. Hur

Animals, Slaves, and Corporations: Analyzing Legal Thinghood

The Article analyzes the notion of legal “thinghood” in the context of the person–thing bifurcation. In legal scholarship, there are numerous assumptions pertaining to this definition that are often not spelled out. In addition, one’s chosen definition of “thing” is often simply taken to be the correct one. The Article scrutinizes these assumptions and definitions. First, a brief history of the bifurcation is offered. Second, three possible definitions of “legal thing” are examined: Things as nonpersons, things as rights and duties, and things as property. The first two definitions are rejected as not being very interesting or serving any heuristic function. Conversely, understanding legal things as property is meaningful, useful, and helps to understand what it means to say that animals are legally things. Defining things as property has certain rather important implications, which are analyzed at the end of the Article. For instance, not everything needs to be either a person or a thing: The historical institution of outlawry involved treating individuals neither as legal persons nor as legal things. One must conclude that the person–thing bifurcation is less fundamental than is often assumed

Second Things First: What Free Speech Can and Can’t Say About Guns

Professor Blocher responds to Gregory Magarian’s article on the implications of the First Amendment for the Second

On Getting First Things First: Assessing Claims for the Primacy of Christ

Adopting modal logic the doctrine of the primacy of Christ is defined and defended in relation to the Thomistic – Scotistic debates over the primary and efficient causes of the incarnation. This leads to a defence of the Scotistic thesis and a reserved affirmation for the Scotistic hypothesis that there would have been an incarnation irrespective of the fall. This hypothesis is tested by reference to the work of four recent theologians, Thomas Weinandy O.F.M. cap., Karl Barth, J¨urgen Moltmann, and Thomas Torrance. Finally, a sketch describ-ng another possible-world incarnation that builds upon the Scotistic hypothesis is provided

Producing Children\u27s Toys through 3-D Printing: A Multidisciplinary Approach

One of the things that first attracted me to VCU was the opportunity for interdisciplinary discussions and interactions. I saw HSURP as a way to push my boundaries and interact with peers from different disciplines. When I saw the Social Design and 3-D Printing project, it just clicked. I saw the opportunity for engineering, for arts, for research, for graphic design. All of the things I was interested in learning about all came together