Brutus Was An Honorable Man But Was He Also A Stupid One?

Today's post is a digression into Roman history and etymology, two of my long-time interests. 

Court Of Appeal Admonishes Counsel With Coke

Usually, appellate decisions provide guidance to future litigants on how the law will be interpreted and applied. A recent published opinion by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, however, provides guidance to lawyers on how they should behave...

What Is Law? California Has Some Answers, But I Prefer Cicero's

Lawyers deal with the law every day, but seldom pause to ask the existential question - What is law?   Conveniently, the California legislature has provided some definitions.  Section 22 of the Civil Code defines "law" in decidedly magisterial terms:

How A Sack Of Flour Healed A Divided Electorate

In 1864, the voters of Austin, Nevada were almost evenly divided between supporters of the Union (Republicans) and advocates for an immediate peace treaty with the Confederacy (Copperheads). Two eminent citizens bet on the outcome of the election....

Yes! Today Is Bloomsday!

In 1924, Nora Barnacle wrote "To day 16 June 1924 twenty years after.  will anybody remember this day."  Nora's husband, James Joyce set all of the action of Ulysses on a single day, June 16, 1904, the date of his first date with Nora.  Because ...

Stock Exchanges Before The SEC

National securities exchanges are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under Section 6(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Before there was an SEC or an Exchange Act, the United States was populated with local stock...

What's With The "O" in Delicto?

Students beginning the study of law almost immediately confront a congeries of Latin phrases, many of which end in the vowel "o".  For example, students will see in pari delicto (in equal fault) and ex delicto (from a wrong). But they will also run...

Saints, Sanctions and Cicero

Yesterday's post included the following description of an article about alleged misconduct by a company's CEO:

Why A "Grant" Must, By Definition, Be In Writing 

The word "transfer" is derived from two (what else?) Latin words - trans and ferre.  The former meaning "across" and the latter meaning "to carry". In a non-technical sense, a "transfer" can involve a simple change in possession. For example, one...

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