Author Description

This book is one of the author's "Legal History Of" series.<br/><br/>The American Revolution, and the war it necessitated, was the first “legal” war, where two nations with firm commitments to a common legal tradition faced off. The United States of America began this time as a British colony and ended a sovereign nation.<br/><br/>Many legal issues from this revolutionary period are discussed, from the supremacy of British imperial law, taxation without representation, general writs of assistance, spying, sabotage, sedition, smuggling, and founding and funding of new national and state governments, to searching for gunpowder and supplies, defining national allegiances, holding military officers to account, engaging naval prize courts, treason, neutrality, PoWs, and creating new alliances, including with Native Americans and the vital relationship between the nascent United States and the Ancien Régime of France.<br/><br/>For each legal issue identified, relevant American and British statutes or military orders, and the related civil or military trials, are presented, coalescing into a legal overview of this period of history. Some trials are well known, other are not, while others simply have been forgotten. These range from the Boston Massacre trial and the spying trial of Benjamin Church to the court martial of John André and the conspiracy to kidnap the commander in chief trial. Others trials are for murder, treason, incompetent leadership, desertion, or disloyalty to one’s nation.<br/><br/>The varied personalities, including George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Marquis de Lafayette, Robert Morris, the Howe brothers, George III, Benedict Arnold, Beaumarchais, and John André, are brought to life. These people, of differing nationalities, cultures, training, and roles, present a compelling human backdrop to the legal story of the revolution. This book has something for those who enjoy legal history or early A