The Distinctiveness of Religion in American Law

This article provides an initial report on oral histories being collected from three surviving Branch Davidians: Bonnie Haldeman, the mother of David Koresh, Clive Doyle, and Sheila Martin. Their accounts are being made into autobiographies. Interviews with a fourth survivor, Catherine Matteson, are being prepared for deposit in an archive and inform the material gathered from Bonnie Haldeman, Clive Doyle, and Sheila Martin. Oral histories provided by these survivors humanize the Branch Davidians, who were dehumanized and erased in 1993 by the application of the pejorative ‘cult’ stereotype by the media and American law enforcement agents. These Branch Davidian accounts provide alternate narratives of what happened in 1993 at Mount Carmel Center outside Waco, Texas, to those provided by American federal agents, and flesh out the human dimensions of the community and the tragedy. Branch Davidians are differentiated from many other people primarily by their strong commitment to doing God's will as they understand it from the Bible. Otherwise they are ordinary, intelligent people with the same emotions, loves, and foibles as others.

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'Reasonable man' and 'reasonable doubt': the English language, Anglo culture and Anglo-American law

International Journal of Speech Language and the Law ◽

10.1558/ijsll.v10i1.1 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 1-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna Wierzbicka

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Reasonable Doubt ◽

American Law ◽

Anglo American

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Rediscovering Blackstone: wpływ Williama Blackstone’a na rozwój amerykańskiej nauki prawa w recepcji Alberta W. Alschulera

Opolskie Studia Administracyjno-Prawne ◽

10.25167/osap.1279 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 175-185

Author(s):

Edyta Sokalska

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

18Th Century ◽

Common Law ◽

The United States ◽

Law School ◽

Large Measure ◽

American Colonies ◽

Late 18Th Century ◽

American Law ◽

The Common

The reception of common law in the United States was stimulated by a very popular and influential treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone, published in the late 18th century. The work of Blackstone strengthened the continued reception of the common law from the American colonies into the constituent states. Because of the large measure of sovereignty of the states, common law had not exactly developed in the same way in every state. Despite the fact that a single common law was originally exported from England to America, a great variety of factors had led to the development of different common law rules in different states. Albert W. Alschuler from University of Chicago Law School is one of the contemporary American professors of law. The part of his works can be assumed as academic historical-legal narrations, especially those concerning Blackstone: Rediscovering Blackstone and Sir William Blackstone and the Shaping of American Law. Alschuler argues that Blackstone’s Commentaries inspired the evolution of American and British law. He introduces not only the profile of William Blackstone, but also examines to which extent the concepts of Blackstone have become the basis for the development of the American legal thought.

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