Kudnarto was the first Aboriginal woman to legally marry, under colonial law in South Australia. Her descendants include prominent Kaurna people like Gladys Elphick and Michael O'Loughlin.
French officer Alfred Dreyfus spent five years as a prisoner on Devil’s Island, off the coast of South America.
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Alton Levy may not be a household name today, but his court-martial put a spotlight on unequal treatment in the military.
A gun rights advocate walks through the rotunda of the Kentucky Capitol. Some lawyers argue that the 1689 English Bill of Rights created the legal basis for public carry of weapons in the U.S.
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Many gun rights advocates claim that the right to carry guns is a universal right that has spanned centuries and nations. History tells a different story.
It takes generations to know whether a major court ruling has actually changed society.
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In 1886, a Victorian judge deplored the disregard given to women’s rights in cases of sexual slander. Today, women are still fighting to protect their reputations and tell their stories.
In 1948, as Cecil George Harris lay dying after a tractor accident, he scratched a final message into the vehicle’s fender.
illustration supplied by: Impact Studios/Dinalie Dabarera.
Courts have had to consider whether an eggshell, a tractor fender, a petticoat hem, graffiti on a wall, and a poem might be valid wills. They’ve shown surprising flexibility in judgment.
The 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) was meant to prevent video rental businesses from sharing their rental records and clients’ information; if companies were caught violating the VPPA, they risked a fine.
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Internet privacy laws are partially governed by the VPPA, which was implemented to protect consumers renting videos. While the technology has changed, amendments place the consumer at a disadvantage.
Jimmy John’s tried to stop its workers from toiling for other sandwich makers.
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Nearly one in five employed Americans is bound by a contract restricting moves to rival companies. Here’s one way to make those arrangements less common.
Giving a reference is protected, in defamation law, by the common-law defence of qualified privilege.
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In many cases, a reference will contain negative things about its subject. This is part of a reference’s design: the referee should give a full and frank assessment.
Informed critique of the courts and their work is essential to the proper functioning of a democracy.
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A “judicial activist”, it seems, decides cases in favour of a preferred (non-“mainstream”) litigant or interest, to reach a result that is inconsistent with a conservative worldview.