The Prevailing British View of Freedoms of Press and Speech, in the Decade Before the American Revolution and Declarations of Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-194
Author(s):  
Wendell Bird
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
The Right

The seditious libel prosecution of John Wilkes, beginning in 1763, showed more clearly than ever that the crimes of seditious libel and seditious words were political crimes, and provoked many in Britain to advocate a more robust concept of freedoms of press and speech, and to question the criminalization of criticism of government and officials. George Wallace, a Scottish lawyer (publishing in London in 1760), set the stage by rejecting limitations on freedoms of press and speech, and rejecting seditious libel as a crime, as others did thereafter. Spurred by the Wilkes prosecutions and then the Junius prosecutions in 1770, scores of writers advocated broad understandings of freedoms of press and speech, such as “the right of free enquiry and fair discussion,” and condemned the entirety or parts of the main restrictions (criminalization of seditious libels and words). The narrow understanding of Blackstone, even before he published it, was a minority understanding.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Cutterham
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
The Right ◽  
Different Parts

This introductory chapter provides an overview of American gentlemen. Before the American Revolution, the idea of the gentleman was already in flux. American gentlemen could not rely on maintaining their status without effort. The performance of gentility involved more than buying and wearing the right things. It also required adherence to the gentlemanly code of honor. While the expectations and behaviors that made up the code were slightly different in different parts of the colonies, there were some things that were supposed to characterize gentlemen everywhere. Most important, a gentleman was someone who could be trusted—who always dealt honestly and kept his word. If he was accused of breaking this code, it was expected that a gentleman would defend his honor, by fighting a duel if necessary. Maintaining the status of a gentleman could end up costing not just one's fortune, but one's life.

The Strange History of the Right to Bear Arms in the French Revolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-479
Author(s):  
Noah Shusterman
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Social Domination ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The French Revolution

Abstract French Revolutionaries shared many of the same beliefs as their American counterparts about the relationship between citizenship and bearing arms. Both nations’ leaders viewed standing armies as a threat to freedom, and both nations required militia participation from a portion of the citizenry. Yet the right to bear arms is a legacy only of the American Revolution. The right to bear arms came up several times in debates in France’s National Assembly. The deputies never approved that right, but they never denied it either. During the first years of the Revolution, the leading politicians were wary of arming poor citizens, a concern that was in tension with the egalitarian language of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Moreover, militias thrived during the early years of the French Revolution and became instruments—albeit unstable ones—for maintaining a social domination that played out along class lines. In response to the contradictions in their positions, French revolutionary leaders remained silent on the issue. In France as in the United States, the question of whether or not there was a right to bear arms was less important than the question of who had the right to bear arms.

scholarly journals Joseph Warren: a discussion of his life and analysis of his death

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. E13
Author(s):  
Ryan Holland ◽  
Victor M. Sabourin ◽  
Chirag D. Gandhi ◽  
Peter W. Carmel ◽  
Charles J. Prestigiacomo
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Medical Doctor ◽  
Public Figure ◽  
The Third ◽  
Exit Wound ◽  
Bullet Wound ◽  
Bunker Hill ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

As his fellow soldiers ran past him, Joseph Warren stood bravely on Bunker Hill. It was June 17, 1775, and British troops were fighting the colonists in one of the early battles of the American Revolution. The British had already attempted two major assaults that day, and the third would end with Warren’s death. He was a medical doctor, public figure, and general who spent his life and last living moments fighting for freedom for the American colonists. After the battle, there was much confusion about what had happened to Joseph Warren. Some thought he had survived the battle; other accounts differed on how exactly he had died. The details of the events on Bunker Hill remained a mystery until the following year, when Paul Revere helped identify Warren’s body by the false teeth that had been implanted years earlier. Warren’s remains showed that his head had been struck by a bullet. Analysis of the skull helped to sift through the differing tales of Warren’s death and thus unveil the truth about what occurred that day. The smaller bullet wound in the left maxilla suggests that he was not shot while retreating with the rest of the soldiers. The larger exit wound in the right occiput illustrates that the bullet’s trajectory crossed the midline of the brain and most likely injured the brainstem. Therefore, contrary to rumors that circulated at the time, Joseph Warren most likely was killed instantly at the Battle of Bunker Hill while heroically facing his enemy.

Biblical Interpretation in Eighteenth-Century America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Stievermann
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Right

Although the Bible in many ways continued to reign supreme in American culture through the American Revolution, there were changes at work that rendered its status and meaning much more equivocal by the end of the eighteenth century. New intellectual challenges arose to the authority of scripture, and its reach over the increasingly differentiated spheres of society diminished. Also, biblical interpretation (and the right to engage therein) became deeply contested as colonial religion was transformed by the Enlightenment and the evangelical revivals. Moreover, its entanglement with the discourses of British imperialism and later Whig republicanism had ambiguous effects on the traditional biblicism.

Investor-State Dispute Settlement under NAFTA Chapter 11: The Shape of Things to Come?

1998 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 263-290
Author(s):  
J. Anthony VanDuzer
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
The North ◽  
State Behaviour ◽  
Nafta Chapter 11 ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Right

SummaryRecently, there has been a proliferation of international agreements imposing minimum standards on states in respect of their treatment of foreign investors and allowing investors to initiate dispute settlement proceedings where a state violates these standards. Of greatest significance to Canada is Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which provides both standards for state behaviour and the right to initiate binding arbitration. Since 1996, four cases have been brought under Chapter 11. This note describes the Chapter 11 process and suggests some of the issues that may arise as it is increasingly resorted to by investors.

What face familiarity feelings say about the lateralization of specific entities within the core system

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Gainotti
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Core System ◽  
The Core ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Temporal Structures ◽  
The Right

Abstract The target article carefully describes the memory system, centered on the temporal lobe that builds specific memory traces. It does not, however, mention the laterality effects that exist within this system. This commentary briefly surveys evidence showing that clear asymmetries exist within the temporal lobe structures subserving the core system and that the right temporal structures mainly underpin face familiarity feelings.

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