Legal Research

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

McDonald, Avril, Jann K. Kleffner, and Brigit Toebes, eds. Depleted uranium weapons and international law : a precautionary approach.
The Hague : T.M.C. Asser Press ; West Nyack, NY : Cambridge University Press [distributor], c2008. Call number: KZ6385 .D47x 2008

Publisher?s Description:
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the international legal aspects of the use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition and armour. The military use of DU has been surrounded by considerable controversy, mainly as regards the health and environmental risks that such use entails. The debate about DU has thus far been highly polarised, with one end of the spectrum rejecting any risk whatsoever and the other end suggesting that the use of DU leads to severe health and environmental consequences, including Gulf-War syndrome, whenever it is used. Rather than settling these controversies, the book takes as a starting point a precautionary approach in light of the considerable remaining scientific uncertainties. It examines various principles and rules of international law, which would be at play if the health and environmental concerns regarding the use of DU were to materialize.

Jones, Bernie D. Fathers of conscience : mixed-race inheritance in the antebellum South. Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2009. Call number: KF4755 .J66 2009

Publisher?s Description:
Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law.

Bernie D. Jones argues that these will contests indicated a struggle within the elite over race, gender, and class issues-over questions of social mores and who was truly family. Judges thus acted as umpires after a man's death, deciding whether to permit his attempts to provide for his slave partner and family. Her analysis of these differing judicial opinions on inheritance rights for slave partners makes an important contribution to the literature on the law of slavery in the United States.

Full post as published by LexLibris on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).