- In the wake of Nelson Mandela's death, the History News Network has run some thought-provoking commentary, including "The Black Hole of Apartheid History," "America Could Use Its Own Truth and Reconciliation Commission," and "Time to Bring Back the 'Great Man' Theory of History?"
- Over at Balkinization, Gerard Magliocca asks "Is it possible that the Government wanted to lose The Civil Rights Cases and thus intentionally wrote lackluster briefs?" (And if you're a Twitter follower, check out Jed Shugerman's feed for an interesting response, based on his research on the early history of the Department of Justice.)
- Via In Custodia Legis: "Napoleon Bonaparte and Mining Rights in France," and, on a lighter note, "Christmas Movies and the Law" (there's some legal history here, I promise -- see the discussion of the "Lion in Winter," "Miracle on 34th Street," and "Bachelor Mother").
- From Lapham's Quarterly: President Harry S. Truman appoints a Secretary of Semantics.
- Josh Blackman (South Texas College of Law) has been researching Charles Hauser, the defendant in the famous Carolene Products case. He blogs about his findings here.
- Via JOTWELL, Sean Coyle (Birmingham Law School) tells us why we should all go read John Finnis's, "Natural Law Theory: Its Past and Its Present," from Volume 57 of the American Journal of Jurisprudence (2012).
