Alternative sets of hyperspherical harmonics: Satisfying cusp conditions through frame transformations

By extending the concept of Euler-angle rotations to more than three dimensions, we develop the systematics under rotations in higher-dimensional space for a novel set of hyperspherical harmonics. Applying this formalism, we determine all pairwise Coulomb interactions in a few-body system without recourse to multipole expansions. Our approach combines the advantages of relative coordinates with those of the hyperspherical description. In the present method, each Coulomb matrix element reduces to the ``1/r'' form familiar from the two-body problem. Consequently, our calculation accounts for all the cusps in the wave function whenever an interparticle separation vanishes. Unlike a truncated multipole expansion, the calculation presented here is exact. Following the systematic development of the procedure for an arbitrary number of particles, we demonstrate it explicitly with the simplest nontrivial example, the three-body system.Comment: 19 pages, no figure

The fifty-two hand blocks re-framed: Rehabilitation of a vernacular martial art

From the late 1980s, a cluster of related African-American vernacular fighting styles became a focus of contention among martial artists. Over the next twenty years, evidence drawn from popular culture, social science, and sport validated the existence of vernacular styles such as Jailhouse Rock and the 52s. This paper examines the recent ‘re-framing’ of the 52s as a heritage art, a uniquely African-American expression for cultivating health, fitness, and ethnic pride, as well as the development of a structured, culturally-based curriculum which began in order to ensure its embodied preservation

Review of Crime in England, 1550-1800

Crime in England, 1550-1800, is the second collection of essays on the social history of crime and the criminal law in early modern England to appear in recent years. Together with the essays in Albion\u27s Fatal Tree (1975),\u27 these offerings advance our knowledge of the subject considerably. To be sure, as G. R. Elton cautions, there are methodological problems in a field so new, and Elton\u27s Introduction will serve as an excellent starting point for readers concerned with such matters. We must nevertheless recognize the accomplishments of the new school of socio-legal historians. The essays in this volume deal with several related problems: procedure (and its social setting) before the royal courts; the local sources of crime and accusations of criminal behavior; minor offenses, locally tried or otherwise settled; and social views toward the system of criminal law and the criminal. I shall follow this rough order in commenting upon these fine essays and their subject matter

Andrew M. Walkover: 1949-1988

I knew Andy Walkover best as a student. I met him first in my evidence class at the University of Michigan. He was the sixties type in the left rear corner who, especially at first, was too often absent but had the most interesting things to say when he came to class. I did not realize it at the time, but Andy was just beginning to discover his vocation. Andy was a rare law student. He was interested in many things, but he would not let others set the agenda for his interests; in particular, he would not let an institution like a law school or impersonal forces like peer norms tell him what was or was not worthy of his attention. Nor was he driven by grades or by the fear that if he didn\u27t learn certain things well he would be unable to succeed in practice. Instead he was driven by ideas; he loved to pursue them in reading and conversation

The Jury and the English Law of Homicide, 1200-1600

The early English jury was self-informing and composed of persons supposed to have first-hand knowledge of the events and persons in question. The judge instructed the jury on the law, but was himself almost entirely dependent upon the jury for his knowledge of the case. By stating the evidence in a way that made the result it wanted a necessary conclusion, the medieval jury was able to alter the impact of formal rules of law to conform with prevailing social attitudes

Societal Concepts of Criminal Liability for Homicide in Medieval England

THE early history of English criminal law lies hidden behind the laconic formulas of the rolls and law books. The rules of the law, as expounded by the judges, have been the subject of many studies; but their practical application in the courts, where the jury of the community was the final and unbridled arbiter, remains a mystery: in short, we know little of the social mores regarding crime and crimi- nals. This study represents an attempt to delineate one major aspect of these societal attitudes. Its thesis is that from late Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the middle ages, there existed a widespread societal distinction between \u27murder,\u27 i.e., homi- cide perpetrated through stealth, and simple homicide, roughly what a later legal age termed manslaughter. This distinction, which was imposed upon the courts through the instrument of the trial jury, was fundamentally at odds with the letter of the law. It is therefore necessary to state, if only briefly, what the rules of law were

Review of Wiltshire Gaol Delivery and Trailbaston Trials, 1275-1306

Ralph B. Pugh\u27s handsome edition of Wiltshire gaol delivery and trailbaston trial rolls for the reign of Edward I provides a valuable resource for scholars of medieval crime and criminal law. The period covered bridges the era of the infrequent general eyres and that of the frequent circuits to try those being held on criminal charges. This transition period saw the development of various institutions and procedures designed to deal with a decline in social stability and an increase in criminal activity. To date, most scholarship has focused either on the workings of the mid-thirteenth- century eyre or on the crisis of law and order in the following century. If we are to know something of the evolution of the criminal law, we must pay close attention to the intervening decades and the path marked out by the documents Dr. Pugh has put before us

“Deep Cover”: Identities and ethics in martial arts fieldwork

[EN] Qualitative research in the social sciences typically requires a personal engagement with resource persons. The widely used participant-observation method requires that the researcher assume as far as possible the role of community member. Even when participant observation is not the chosen method, group members assign identities to investigators. Role assignment in martial contexts may range from the “intruder” who disrupts ongoing events (e.g., outsiders may not see “secret techniques”) to one who is allowed insider access, usually after having gone through some test or rite of passage. Data collected in “natural context” is ideal. The primary problem here is that act of observation inevitably changes phenomena under examination. The most effective means of gathering information in a natural context is by engaging in what is known in the Intelligence community as “deep cover” actually joining a community for the purpose of secretly gathering information. This, of course, brings with it serious ethical dilemmas. While it is clear that we must all address the issue of transparency vs. efficiency, most decisions actually are made on a case by case basis. I suggest that it may be time to develop a general set of guidelines to help us keep faith with informants and accomplish our academic goals of accurately depicting the martial cultures with which we engage

Verdict According to Conscience: Perspectives on the English Criminal Trial Jury 1200-1800

This book treats the history of the English criminal trial jury from its origins to the eve of the Victorian reforms in the criminal law. It consists of eight free-standing essays on important aspects of that history and a conclusion. Each chapter addresses the phenomenon that has come to be known as jury nullification, the exercise of jury discretion in favor of a defendant whom the jury nonetheless believes to have committed the act with which he is charged. Historically, some instances of nullification reflect the jury\u27s view that the act in question is not unlawful, while in other cases the jury does not quarrel with the law but believes that the prescribed sanction is too severe. Order is imposed on the book not by time but by a unity of concern. This approach trades the continuity of a comprehensive narrative for a more detailed treatment of issues and events of particular significance. With one exception, these essays are not concerned with establishing the fact of nullification. No one who has studied the history of criminal law doubts that on occasion this practice occurs. (Indeed, the practice is a central topic in many of the important studies of the social history of crime that have appeared in recent years.) What interests me most is not the persistence of nullification but its imp_act through time on the substantive law, on the administration of the law, and on the ways in which Englishmen-officials, jurists, and laymen-thought about both the jury and the law. It is on these aspects that I focus, and it is that focus that makes the book (at least in the author\u27s mind) a general social and intellectual history of an important element of English criminal law.https://repository.law.umich.edu/books/1003/thumbnail.jp

Verdict According to Conscience: Perspectives on the English Criminal Trial Jury 1200-1800

This book treats the history of the English criminal trial jury from its origins to the eve of the Victorian reforms in the criminal law. It consists of eight free-standing essays on important aspects of that history and a conclusion. Each chapter addresses the phenomenon that has come to be known as jury nullification, the exercise of jury discretion in favor of a defendant whom the jury nonetheless believes to have committed the act with which he is charged. Historically, some instances of nullification reflect the jury\u27s view that the act in question is not unlawful, while in other cases the jury does not quarrel with the law but believes that the prescribed sanction is too severe. Order is imposed on the book not by time but by a unity of concern. This approach trades the continuity of a comprehensive narrative for a more detailed treatment of issues and events of particular significance. With one exception, these essays are not concerned with establishing the fact of nullification. No one who has studied the history of criminal law doubts that on occasion this practice occurs. (Indeed, the practice is a central topic in many of the important studies of the social history of crime that have appeared in recent years.) What interests me most is not the persistence of nullification but its imp_act through time on the substantive law, on the administration of the law, and on the ways in which Englishmen-officials, jurists, and laymen-thought about both the jury and the law. It is on these aspects that I focus, and it is that focus that makes the book (at least in the author\u27s mind) a general social and intellectual history of an important element of English criminal law.https://repository.law.umich.edu/books/1003/thumbnail.jp