HIST 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: South Carolina Railroad, Riparian Water Rights, Instrumentalism
21 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Early 19th century-american la turned away from the conception of the law and toward a view of the law as a social tool that people made and used for their own purposes (legal instrumentalism) In a society that was undergoing industrialization, judges considered the furtherance of economic expansion to be utilitarian. Most important: property rights: john locke-asserted that no one, not even the government, can deprive a person of their property without due process of law, state has a doctrine called eminent domain-power to condemn property. Key question: where vested rights end and eminent domain begins: 18th century american inherited its legal system form the english common law, best summation of english common law in the 18th century: William blackstone"s commentaries of the laws of england (1765-1769) Limited a person"s use of property to its natural use, which almost always meant agriculture. Contract: caveat emptor-let the buyer beware, equitable theory of contract vs. will theory of contract.
