Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 6 P40 doc

Moton, covered with Liuzzo’s blood, feigned
death and then ran three miles before finding
safety with other civil rights workers.
It took the FBI eight hours to arrest three
suspects, all Klan members. Gary Thomas
Rowe, Jr., a 34-year-old Klan member who
had been passing information to the FBI for five
years, was riding with three others in the car
from which the fatal shots were fired. Immedi-
ately, the state of Alabama indicted the other
three men on first-degree murder char ges.
Rowe was given immunity and put in
PROTECTIVE
CUSTODY
in return for testifying against Eugene
Thomas, age 43; William Orville Eaton, age 41
and Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr., age 21. According
to Rowe’s subsequent testimony, the men had
received instructions from Klan leaders to punish
one of the marchers.
A trial on state charges in Ma y 1965 ended
in a
MISTRIAL. However, a subsequent federal
trial, based on a conspiracy to violate Luizzo’s
civil rights, brought guilty verdicts. Each of the
defendants was sentenced to ten years. A
subsequent
APPEAL failed.
In 1979 the Liuzzo family filed a $2 million
lawsuit against the FBI. The suit accused the
bureau of

NEGLIGENCE in its hiring, training, and
supervision of Rowe. The informant, it alleged,
was a loose gun who had actively participated in
the murder. U.S. district judge Charles Joiner
heard the trial without a jury and on May 30,
1983, found that Rowe did not shoot Liuzzo.
He further ruled that the government was not
responsible for her death.
In 1982 the Detroit City Council honored
Liuzzo for her contributions to the struggle for
civil and
HUMAN RIGHTS. In June 1982 a mayoral
PROCLAMATION made June 1– 8 VIOLA LIUZZO
Commemoration Week. Other memorials fol-
lowed. In 1985 nearly 100 marchers led by the
Reverend Joseph Lowery, president of the
SCLC, retraced the historic Selma-to-Mon-
tgomery march and laid a wreath at the site
where she was murdered. There along U.S.
Route 80, beside a swampy stretch, stands a
simple stone marker, dedicated in 1991 by
women members of the SCLC. It reads, “In
Memory of Our Sister Viola Liuzzo Who Gave
Her Life in the Struggle for the Right to Vote.”
FURTHER READINGS
Gentry, Curt. 2001. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the
Secrets. New York: Norton.
Powers, Richard G. 1987. Secrecy and Power: The Life of J.
Edgar Hoover. New York: Free Press.
Siegel, Beatrice. 1993. Murder on the Highway: The Viola

Liuzzo Story. New York: Four Winds Press.
Stanton, Mary. 2000. From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and
Death of Viola Liuzzo. Athens, GA: Univ. of Georgia Press.
LIVERY OF SEISIN
A ceremony performed in medieval England that
effected the transfer of land from one party to
another.
Livery of seisin was the dominant method of
transferring land in England until 1536, and it
continued to be legal until 1925. The term livery
of seisin means simply “transfer of possession”:
livery means “delivery” and is from the Old
French livrer, and seisin me ans “possession” and
is from the Old French saisir or seisir. The
concept behind livery of seisin, therefore, was
the symbolic transfer of the possession of land.
The entire ceremony of transfer was called
FEOFFMENT with livery of seisin, with feoffmen t
meaning “a gift,” specifically a gift of a
FREEHOLD
interest in a parcel of land. The transferor was
the feoffor, the transferee was the feoffee, and
the land interest was the fief.
In the Middle Ages, a livery of seisin was
essential to convey la nd from one party to
another; without it no real right to land could
be transferred. When performing the ceremony,
the feoffor, the feoffee, and their witnesses
generally stood on the land itself, though it was
permissible to stand within view of the land if

the feoffee made an actual entry to the land
while the feoffor was still alive. During the
ceremony the feoffor spoke appropriate words
declaring the gift, and then handed the feoffee
an object representing that gift, such as dirt,
turf, or a twig, or even a ring, a cross, or a knife.
If a house was being transferred, the ring of the
door might be exchanged.
In addition to delivering possession of the
land, the feoffor needed to vacate the land. The
feoffor’s tenants and others living on the land
were expelled, along with their possessions. In
some cases, the feoffor performed a ceremony
or gesture showing abandonment of the land,
such as by making a sign with the hands,
jumping over a hedge, or throwing a rod to the
feoffee.
A livery of seisin was sometimes accompa-
nied by a deed, or charter of feoffment, written
in Latin, which was used to call attention to
the conveyance of land. This was often the case
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
378 LIVERY OF SEISIN
when the transfer in question had special
political significance or when it involved com-
plex boundaries. If a charter of feoffment existed,
it was read during the livery of seisin. However,
such a charter did not in itself serve as a means
of transferring land; rather, it was used simply
as evidence that a transfer had taken place. Its

language was not “I hereby give” but “Know
ye that I have given.” A charter of feoffment
by itself was not considered an agreement to
transfer land, but had to be accompanied by a
livery of seisin.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England,
before the Norman Conquest of 1066, the use of
writing was rare, so few charters existed. After
the Norman invasion, writing was used more
often, but charters were still generally short and
crude. Eventually, over a period of hundreds
of years, the delivery of a charter or deed came
to replace the delivery of dirt, twigs, or knives
that had been used to convey land in the livery-
of-seisin ceremonies.
The Real Property Act of 1845 (8 & 9 Vict.
ch. 106 [Eng.]) did not abolish livery of seisin,
but it did allow deeds to be used freely as
granting devices, which had the same effect. The
Law of Property Act, passed in 1925 (15 & 16
Geo. 5, ch. 20 [Eng.]), finally abolished the livery-
of-seisin ceremony.
FURTHER READINGS
Bergin, Thomas F., and Paul G. Haskell. 1991. Preface to
Estates in Land and Future Interests. Eagan, MN: West.
Singer, Joseph William. 2006. Property Law: Rules, Policies,
and Practices. Frederick, MD: Aspen.
Williams, Joshua. 2008. The Seisin of the Freehold. Charleston,
SC: BiblioBazaar.
LIVERY STABLE KEEPERS

Individuals who, as a regular course of business,
provide quarters for the boarding of horses and
rent them for hire.
Livery stables are ordinarily subject to regu-
lation. A municipal corporation acting subject
to the authority delegated by the state legisla-
ture can prohibit the maintenance of such
stables in particular areas of a town or city. Such
regulation must be reasonable and uniform in
its effect upon individual keepers as well as the
general public at large. A state or a municipal
corporation can require that a livery stable
keeper obtain a license, or it can impose a tax
upon their activities. Generally a livery stable
keeper who hires out a horse makes an implied
promise or warranty that it is fit for ordinary
use. The livery stable keeper will be held liable
in the event that the horse is vicious and, as a
result, a person suffers injury as a result of the
horse’s behavior.
LIVING TRUST
A property right, held by one party for the benefit
of another, that becomes effective during the
lifetime of the creator and is, therefore, in existence
upon his or her death.
A living trust, also known as an inter vivos
trust, is different from a testamentary trust, which
is created by will and does not take effect until
the death of the settlor.
LIVING WILL

A written document that allows a patient to
give explicit instructions about medical treatment
to be administered when the patient is terminally
ill or permanently unconscious; also called an
advance directive.
With improvements in modern medicine,
the life of persons who are terminally ill or
permanently unconscious can be prolonged.
For increasing numbers of persons, the decision
of whether to prolong life is being made in the
form of a written document called a living will.
The living will is one type of advance directive
that may be used by a person before incapa-
citation to outline a full range of treatment
preferences or, most often, to reject treatment.
A living will extends the principle of consent,
WHEREBY patients must agree to any medical
intervention before doctors can proceed. It
allows the patient to guide health care for the
future when she may be too ill to make decisions
concerning care. It can be revoked by the
patient at any time. For many the living will
preserves personal control and eases the deci-
sion-making burden of a family.
Forty-two states and the
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
have living-will statutes that make a properly
executed living will legally binding. In states
that do not have a statute, living wills stand as a
clear expression of the patient’s wishes. Living-

will statutes require that the person be legally
competent to execute the will and that the will be
witnessed by at least one disinterested person.
Once a person who has a valid living will is
terminally ill, the attending physician and a
second physician must certify in writing that
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
LIVING WILL 379
there is no reasonable expectation for improve-
ment in the patient’s condition and that death
will occur as a result of the incurable disease,
illness, or injury.
Upon this certification the doctor is obligat-
ed to follow the instructions contained in the
living will. This typically means the patient does
not want any medical procedures that serve only
to prolong but not prevent the dying process.
Therefore, if the patie nt is unable to breathe, the
doctor is not required to connect the patient to
a respirator. A patient may state in a living will
that he does not want a feeding tube if unable
to swallow food. Another common directive is
to forbid resuscitation if the patient’s heart
stops beating.
Living wills have been criticized because
they are usually limited to the withholding or
withdrawing of “life-sustaining” procedures
from a patient with a “terminal condition” or
“terminal illness,” and thus do not accu rately
reflect the broad

LEGAL RIGHT to refuse treatment.
In addition, by their very nature, living wills
reduce the patient’s wishes to writing, and
thus may be too rigid (or too vague) to adapt
to changing interests or anticipate future
circumstances.
To overcome these problems, many states
have enacted statutes that permit a competent
adult to designate a surrogate decision maker
(also termed a health care
PROXY or agent) to
make health care decisions for her in the event
of incapacitation. The proxy’s authority is usually
not limited to decisions about life-sustaining
treatment. A proxy can supplement a living will.
All 50 states have durable-power-of-
attorney statutes that permit an individual
(the principal) to designate another person (the
attorney in fact) to perform specific tasks during
any period of incapacity. Though most of these
statutes do not expressly refer to medical care
decisions, no court has ruled that they preclude
the delegation of medical decision-making
authority to the attorney in fact.
CROSS R EFERENCES
Death and Dying; Health Care Law; Organ Donation Law;
Patients’ Rights; Physician s and Surgeons; Quinlan, In re.
A sample living trust.
ILLUSTRATION BY GGS
CREATIVE RESOURCES.

REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF GALE,
A PART OF CENGAGE
LEARNING.
DECLARATION OF LIVING TRUST

This declaration of trust is made on _________________ (Date), by _______________________________________________ ("Trustee")
in favor of ___________________________________________________________ ("Beneficiary").

The Trustee solemnly declares that he or she holds: ____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
("Property") in trust solely for the benefit of said Beneficiary.

The Trustee further promises the Beneficiary:

(a) Trustee will not deal with the Property in any way without the authorization of the Beneficiary, except to transfer it to the
Beneficiary; and,

(b) Trustee will account to the Beneficiary for any money received by the Trustee in connection with holding said Property.

_________________________________________________________________
Trustee

_________________________________________________________________
Witness
Warning:

These forms are provided AS IS. They may not be any good. Even if they are good in one jurisdiction, they may not work in another.
And the facts of your situation may make these forms inappropriate for you. They are for informational purposes only, and you should
consult an attorney before using them.

Living Trust
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
380 LIVING WILL
v
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD
Edward Livingston was an important lawyer,
politician, and diplomat who served under
Presidents
THOMAS JEFFERSON and ANDREW JACK-
SON
. Apart from the many government offices
he held, Livingston is remembered for propos-
ing a comprehensive criminal code in which
all offenses were clearly and simply defined.
Livingston was born on May 28, 1764, in
Clermont, New York. His father,
ROBERT R.
LIVINGSTON, was a prominent New York political
leader and judge in the years leading up to the
American Revolution. His older brother, also
named Robert R. Livingston, was a lawyer and a
member of the
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS committee
that drafted the
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
He was a close advisor to President Jefferso n
and negotiated the
LOUISIANA PURCHASE from
France. Edward Livingston followed in his
brother’s footsteps. After graduating from the

College of New Jersey (now Princeton Univer-
sity) in 1781, he studied law in Albany, New
York. He was admitted to the New York bar in
1785 and entered private law practice. In 1795
Livingston was elected to Congress. He served
three terms and chaired the House Commerce
Committee during his second term. Livingston
earned Jefferson’s loyalty when he opposed the
ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS and Jay’s TREATY.
In 1801 Livin gston left Congress to become
U.S. attorney for New York City. That same
year, he was elected Mayor of New York. What
seemed a promising start to a successful poli-
tical career came crashing down on Livingston
in 1803. One of his aides either lost or took
public funds, and Livingston was obligated to
sell his property to pay off the debt. He severed
ties with New York in 1804 and moved to
Louisiana. He pursued his legal career, but the
WAR OF 1812 brought him back into public life.
He organized the New Orleans public defense
committee and then served as General Andrew
Jackson’s top aide during the Battle of New
Orleans. After the war, he returned to law
practice, but by 1820 he was back in politics as
part of the Louisiana state legislature.
In 1821 Livingston produced a criminal
code that he urged Louisiana to adopt. He
sought to bring order and clarity to
CRIMINAL LAW

and procedure, which was a mixture of statutes
and many
COMMON LAW decisions. It was his
belief that people were entitled to know, rather
than to guess, what actions constituted crimes.
His code was not enacted by Louisiana but he
tried again at the federal level when he entered
the U.S. House of Representatives in 1823. In
1829 he was elected to the U.S. Senate as his
model code, A system of Penal Law for the
United States of America, drew favorable reviews
in Europe. Although his code was never enacted,
it remains an important document for the
CODIFICATION movement that reached its zenith
during the twentieth century.
Livingston resigned from the Senate in 1831
to serve as
SECRETARY OF STATE for President
Andrew Jackson. Two years later, he left that
post to serve as U.S. minister to France. He
returned to the United States in 1835 and died
on May 23, 1836, in Barrytown, New York.
FURTHER READINGS
Elkins, Stanley M., and McKitrick, Eric. 1995. The Age of
Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800.
New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Hall, Kermit L. 2008. The Magic Mirror: Law in American
History. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Hatcher, William. 1970. Edward Livingston: Jeffersonian
Republican and Jacksonian Democrat. Gloucester, MA:

P. Smith.
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Edward Livingston 1764–1836
17501750
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1764 Born,
Clermont, N.Y.
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1763 Treaty of Paris
ends French and

Indian War
1774 Boston
Tea Party
1776 Declaration
of Independence
signed
1787 U.S.
Constitution
drafted
1781 Graduated from
College of New Jersey
(Princeton)
1785 Admitted
to New York bar
1798 Congress
passes Alien and
Sedition Acts
1812 War of
1812 with
Great Britain
1820 Missouri
Compromise
enacted, limiting
slavery
1834 Whig Party
is formed
1801 Elected
Mayor of New York
1821 Proposed
Louisiana

criminal code
1823
Elected to
Congress
1836 Died,
Barrytown, N.Y.
1831 Appointed Secretary of State
18
29 Elected to U.S. Senate
1795 Elected to Congress
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD 381
v
LIVINGSTON, HENRY BROCKHOLST
Henry Brockholst Livingston came from a
powerful New York family. He was educated
at Princeton alongside
JAMES MADISON, had
political ties to
THOMAS JEFFERSON, and enjoyed
rapid advancement through the military, private
practice, and the bench. From 1802 to 1807,
Livingston served on the New York Supreme
Court. An outspoken anti-Federalist in his
youth, Livingston grew more conservative in
later life. He served as an
ASSOCIATE JUSTIC E on
the U.S. Supreme Court from 1807 until his
death in 1823.
Livingston was born November 25, 1757, in

New York City. Established in New York in the
late seventeenth century, his family also included
other notable public figures: Philip Livingston
(1716–78) signed the
DECLARATION OF INDEPEN-
DENCE
, William Livingston (1723–90) was New
Jersey’s first governor,
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON
(1746–1813) negotiated the LOUISIANA PURCHASE,
and
EDWARD LIVINGSTON (1764–1836) served in
Congress and as
SECRETARY OF STATE. At an early
age, Livingston had several outstanding accom-
plishments in military service. He was commis-
sioned a major at age 19. At 22 he was a
secretary in Spain to his brother-in-law, U.S.
minister
JOHN JAY. At twenty-five he helped
negotiate the end of the Revolutionary War.
Livingston’s legal career advanced in similar
fashion. After being admitted to the New York
bar in 1783, he was soon in private practice
working alongside
ALEXANDER HAMILTON and
AARON BURR. He entered politics in 1786 when
he was elected to the New York Assembly. In
1789 he delivered the first Independence Day
speech in Saint Paul’s Church, before Congress,

President
GEORGE WASHINGTON, and other distin-
guished leaders. During this period he became
a fierce anti-Federalist and sided with Jefferson.
Livingston’s outspokenness in public and in
print led to conflict. He survived an
ASSASSINA-
TION
attempt in 1785, and in 1798, after being
punched in the nose by an angry Federalist,
he killed the man in a duel. But his politics also
brought rewards. In return for helping Jefferson
win the state of New York in the 1800
Henry B. Livingston.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/
CORBIS.
Henry Brockholst Livingston 1757–1823
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17501750
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❖
1757 Born,
New York City
1774 Graduated from the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton)
1776–77 Served in Continental Army
1779–82 Served as private secretary
to John Jay, U.S. minister to Spain
1775–83
American Revolution
1789 Delivered first
Independence Day
speech before Congress
and president
1786 Elected to
New York Assembly
1785 Survived assassination attempt
1783 Admitted to New York bar
1802–07
Served on
New York
Supreme
Court
1807–23
Served as
associate
justice on U.S.
Supreme Court
1817 Upheld
New York's

insolvency
law in
Adam
s v.
Storey
1823 Died,
Washington,
D.C.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
382 LIVINGSTON, HENRY BROCKHOLST
presidential election, Livingston was appointed
to the New York Supreme Court.
In four years on the New York bench,
Livingston gained high distinction. He wrote
149 opinions—a prodigious number—many
concerning his specialty,
COMMERCIAL LAW.He
tended to favor business interests at a time
when capitalism was bustling. In civil liberties
he took the traditional view that truth and
GOOD FAITH were not defenses against a charge of
SEDITIOUS LIBEL. He was also a practitioner of the
art of judicial humor. His most-quoted opinion
is his dissent in the so-called Foxhunt case,
Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. R. 175 (1805), which dealt
with the question of who should be entitled to
claim a fox—the hunter who has pursued it up
to the end, or another hunter who snatches it
at the last moment. “This is a knotty point,”
wrote Livingston, “and should have been sub-

mitted to the arbitration of sportsmen.”
In 1807 President Jefferson made Livingston
his second appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under Chief Justice
JOHN MARSHALL, Livingston’s
anti-Federalism was tempered, and he generally
followed the chief justice’s lead. Compared with
the stream of opinions he issued in New York,
his output of thirty-eight majority opinions,
eight dissents, and six concurrences was mini-
mal. He continued to write chiefly on commer-
cial and maritime law; in the latter area, he was a
specialist in
PRIZE LAW, a now antiquated area of
JURISPRUDENCE that dealt with the capture of goods
at sea during wartime. Early Supreme Court
justices, in addition to their duties on the Court,
routinely travelled the circuit to which they were
assigned and presided over its cases. Most scholars
have found Livingston’s circuit court decisions
more notable than his opinions in Supreme Court
cases, especially Adams v. Storey, 1 Fed. Cas. 141
(C.C.D.N.Y. 1817) (No. 66), in which he upheld
New York’s
INSOLVENCY law against a challenge
that it violated the Constitution’s Contracts
Clause and federal
BANKRUPTCY JURISDICTION.
Livingston suffered two ethical lapses while
on the Supreme Court. He told

JOHN QUINCY
ADAMS
the Court’s decision in FLETCHER V. PECK,
10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 4 L. Ed. 629 (1810) before
it was announced, when Adams was a counsel
on the case. And while the Court was deciding
Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. (4
Wheat.) 518, 4 L. Ed. 629 (1819), he reportedly
received
EXTRAJUDICIAL information abou t the
case from a former colleague.
Neither incident seems to have damaged
his career. He continued to serve on the Court
until his death on March 18, 1823, in
Washington, D.C.
FURTHER READINGS
Flanders, Henry. 2006. The Lives and Times of the Chief
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ann
Arbor, MI: Scholarly Publishing Office, Univ. of
Michigan.
Friedman, Leon, and Fred L. Israel, eds. 1995. The Justices of
the United States Supreme Court, 1789–1969: Their Lives
and Major Opinions. New York: Chelsea House.
Henry, Herman, and Bernard Meyer. 2008. List of Works
Relating to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar.
v
LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R.
Robert R. Livingston served the United States
in many ways, from participating in the

CON-
TINENTAL CONGRESS
, to administering the oath of
office to GEORGE WASHINGTON and negotiating the
LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
Livingston was born Novemb er 27, 1746, in
New York City. His great-grandfather came to
America in the 1670s with little, but through
hard work and a fortuitous
MARRIAGE soon began
building a vast empire. Livingston’s father,
Judge Robert R. Livingston, was called the
richest landowner in New York, and
REAL ESTATE
holdings of the influential and politically
active Livingston clan eventually totaled nearly
1 million acres.
After gra duating from King’s College (now
Columbia University), Livingston studied law,
and was admitted to the bar in 1770. He
practiced law for a time with his college
classmate and friend
JOHN JAY. In 1773 he
received a political appointment as recorder
for New York City, wherein he presided over
certain criminal trials. He held the position
until 1775, when his Revolutionary sympath ies
made him unacceptable to the Crown.
Livingston was elected to the Continental
Congress in 1775. He was soon appointed to the

committee charged with drafting a
DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE
, with ROGER SHERMAN, BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
, JOHN ADAMS, and THOMAS JEFFERSON.
However, Livingston was apparently not in-
volved in the actual drafting of the document;
his appointment was seemingly a political
maneuver designed to encourage the equivocat-
ing province of New York into a firm commit-
ment to independence. Livingston himself was
ambivalent. He believed that autonomy from
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R. 383
Britain was necessary and inevitable, but inex-
pedient at that time; in debate he advocated
postponement of the issue. When the Conti-
nental Congress voted on the declaration on
July 2, 1776, New York abstained, preventing a
unanimous ballot. The New York delegation
was forced to abstain because the New York
convention had not authorized it to vote
affirmatively. Within weeks a newly elected
New York convention ratified the declaration,
and the ratification was retroactively ruled
unanimous. When the signing of the Declara-
tion of Independence commenced in Philadel-
phia on August 2, Livingston was elsewhere
organizing a committee to coordinate New

York’s defense and conferring with General
Washington on military matters.
Livingston, Jay, and Gouverneur Morris
were the principal writers of New York’s
constitution, which was submitted for approval
in 1777. Livingston’s main contribution to
the document was a counc il of revision, which
could veto legislation. The council of revision
was composed of the governor, chancellor, and
state supreme court justices.
In 1777 Livings ton was appointed chancel-
lor of New York, the state’s highest legal officer,
second in precedence only to the governor. In
this position, which he held until 1801, he
presided over the court of
EQUITY. His legal
abilities were highly regarded by his colleagues.
Livingston was again a delegate to the
Continental Congress in 1779–80. A tireless
worker, he was active on committees on financial
affairs, military issues, legal organization, and
foreign affairs, among others. He helped
formulate a court of appeals. In 1780 he was
nominated for an
APPELLATE judgeship, but
declined the position.
In 1781 Livingston was appointed secretary
of foreign affairs, a position he held for three
years. He organized the newly establi shed
department. His most important contribution

during this period was his diplomatic corre-
spondence regarding peace with Great Britain.
The Revolutionary War was over, but negotiat-
ing the peace was a lengthy endeavor. Finally,
on April 19, 1783, the
TREATY OF PARIS made it
official, and Livingston had the honor of
conveying the news to General Washington.
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Robert R. Livingston 1746–1813
17251725
17751775
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18251825
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1813 Died,
Clermont, New York
1812–14
War of 1812
1803
Louisiana
Purchase

Treaty signed
1801 Named
minister to France;
began negotiating
purchase of
Louisiana Territory
1789 Administered
oath of office to
President
Washington in
New York City
1777–1801 Served as chancellor of New
York, presiding over court of equity
1783 Treaty of Paris signed,
ending American Revolution
1746 Born,
New York City
1770 Admitted to bar
1773–75 Served as recorder
for New York City
1779–80 Served as delegate to Second Continental Congress
1781–84 Served as secretary of foreign affair
s
1775 Elected to First Continental Congress; American Revolution began
Robert R. Livingston.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
384 LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R.
Livingston served in the Continental Con-
gress again in 1784–85. In 1788 he was a leader

in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the convention
to ratify the U.S. Constitution. A staunch
Federalist, he was one of the most frequent
pro-Constitution speakers at the ratifying con-
vention. Livingston, along with
ALEXANDER
HAMILTON
, played a major role in the success of
FEDERALISM in New York at that time.
By virtue of his position as chancellor,
Livingston administered the oath of office to
President Washington in the national capital,
then New York City, on April 30, 1789. His
friend Jay was appointed chief justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court, and Hamilton was named
secretary of the treasury. Despite Livingston’s
activism the new government did not reward
him with an office. Possibly for this reason, and
because he disagreed with Hamilton’s policy of
federal assumption of state debts, Livingston
turned anti-Federalist and entered into a
political alliance with members of the Jefferso-
nian opposition—then called Republicans—in
about 1791.
Jefferson offered Livingston the secretary-
ship of the Navy in 1800, but he declined. In
1801 Jefferson named him minister to France.
Once in Paris Livingston set about investigat-
ing rumors that Spain was about to
CEDE its

province Louisiana back to France, which had
owned it until 1762. Livingston was charged
with preventing this. If unable to do so, he was
to procure parts of the province, including
West Florida and New Orleans, for the United
States.
Livingston soon discovered that the retro-
cession had already occurred. However, because
of impending war with Great Britain, a French
failure in Santo Domingo, and financial con-
cerns, Napoléon sudde nly offered to sell the
entire Louisiana Territory to the United States.
No one really knew how vast the region was, but
it was generally agreed that the Mississippi River
formed the eastern boundary and the Ro cky
Mountains the western edge. Livingston and
JAMES MONROE, who had recently joined him in
Paris, negotiated the final deal for $15 million—
purchasing approximately 828,000 square miles
for only pennies an acre. Overnight, the size
of the United States doubled. The Louisiana
Purchase
TREATY, closing the purchase from
France, signed May 2, 1803, but antedated
April 30, 1803, was the triumph of Livingston’s
career.
Livingston resigned his diplomatic post in
1804. After touring Europe he returned to his
home in Clermont, New York, and retired from
politics.

Livingston had long been interested in
steam navigation. While in Paris he had met
Robert Fulton, and the two men had entered
into a partnership to develop a commercially
successful steamboat. An early venture sank on
the Seine, but in 1807 a new boat sailed on the
Hudson River from New York City to Albany.
The running speed of the Clermont approached
five miles an hour, and cut sailing time to a
small fraction of that required by the tall-
masted Hudson River sloops then in use.
Livingston had use d his political clout to obtain
a steam navigation
MONOPOLY in New York in
1798, and he and Fulton set about attempting to
exploit and extend the monopoly. Protracted
LITIGATION concerning the monopoly kept
Livingston occupied in his final years.
Livingston was very active in his home state
as well as nationally. In addition to working
on New York’s constitution, he was a leader
in Revolutionary organizations replacing the
Crown government, and was a member of the
commission that governed the state after
the Revolutionary War. In 1811 he was on the
first canal co mmission, which eventually
resulted in the Erie Canal.
Livingston also had a keen interest in
farming, and maintained an active correspon-
dence with Jefferson, Washington, and others

regarding the la test scientific agricultural meth-
ods. He was a leader in importing merino sheep
from Spain and using gypsum as fertilizer.
Livingston died February 26, 1813, in
Clermont.
FURTHER READINGS
Brandt, Clare. 1986. An American Aristocracy: The Living-
stons. New York: Doubleday.
Dangerfield, George. 1960. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston
of New York, 1746–1813. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Hull, N.E.H. 1998. Roscoe Pound and Karl Llewellyn:
Searching for an American Jurisprudence. Chicago: Univ.
of Chicago Press.
CROSS REFERENCE
New York Constitution of 1777.
ON THE WHOLE I
THINK IT WOULD BE
MORE DIGNIFIED AND
MORE SAFE TO ACT
UPON OUR GROUND
AND IF WE MUST
ENTER INTO THE WAR
[AGAINST
NAPOLEON], SECURE
TO OURSELVES ALL
THE ADVANTAGES
THAT MAY RESULT
FROM
[DOING SO].
—ROBERT LIVINGSTON

GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
LIVINGSTON, ROBERT R. 385
LL.B.
An abbreviation denoting the degree of bachelor of
laws, which was the basic degree award ed to an
individual upon completion of law school until
the late 1960s.
The degree has been largely replaced by the
J.D.,
JURIS DOCTOR (or doctor of JURISPRUDENCE)
degree.
v
LLEWELLYN, KARL NICKERSON
Karl N. Llewellyn was a distinguished legal
scholar and professor, and a leading
PROPONENT
of LEGAL REALISM, a philosophy that is critical of
the theory that the law operates only as a system
of objective rules.
Llewellyn was born May 22, 1893, in West
Seattle, Washington. His father was of Welsh
ancestry and his mother’s ancestors had come
to the New World on the Mayflower. Llewellyn
spent much of his you th in Brooklyn, where his
family had moved during the first year of his
life. Unhappy and unchallenged academically
by high school in the United States, he entered
the Realgymnasium in Mecklenburg, Germany,
where he boarded with relatives of a family
friend. During his three years in Germany,

Llewellyn became fluent in German and demon-
strated talent in mathematics and science. He left
Mecklenburg in the spring of 1911, and briefly
attended the University of Lausanne, in Switzer-
land, before returning to the United States.
In September 1911 Llewellyn entered Yale,
where he compiled an outstanding academic
record and excelled at athletics, especially boxing.
In the spring of 1914 he entered the Sorbonne,
in Paris, to study Latin, law, and French. He was
still a student there when
WORLD WAR I broke
out. Although he never officially enlisted, he
fought with the Seventy-eighth Prussian Infan-
try on the western front, earning the Iron Cross
for his service. He was wounded in battle in
November 1914 and spent nearly three months
in a military hospital.
Llewellyn returned to the United States and
to school in 1915. During his second stint at
Yale, he took his coursework even more seriously
and began considering a career in teaching. He
studied under William Graham Sumner, the
author of Folkways (1906), an acclaimed work
concerning social practices and beliefs and the
influence of both on society and individual
behavior. The ideas and theories found in
Sumner’s work would significantly affect the
development of Llewellyn’s view of the law as
a social institution that is greatly influenced by

the surrounding culture.
Later in 1915 Llewellyn entered Yale Law
School. He served as editor in chief of the Yale
Law Journal for three years and wrote many of
its articles himself. In 1918 he graduated at the
top of his class. He remained for two years as a
part-time instructor in the law school, filling in
for an ailing professor. Llewellyn mostly taught
courses in
COMMERCIAL LAW, which later would
become his specialty. In September 1920,
thinking that practical experience was impor-
tant before settling into an academic career, he
took a position in the legal department of the
National City Bank in New York City. Soon
after he was hired, the bank dissolved its legal
department and transferred its legal business
▼▼
▼▼
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn 1893–1962
18751875
19251925
19501950
19751975
19001900
❖
◆
◆
◆◆
◆

◆
◆
◆
❖
1893 Born, West
Seattle, Wash.
1914 Graduated from
Yale University, entered the
Sorbonne; joined Prussian
Infantry and was
wounded in battle
1918 Graduated top of his class from Yale Law School
1914–1918
World War I
1939–45
World War II
1950–53
Korean War
1961–73
Vietnam War
1924
Accepted
profes-
sorship
at Columbia
Law School
1922 Joined
Yale Law
School faculty
1931 The

Bramble Bush:
On Our Law
and Its Study
published
1930 Appointed Betts Professor
of Jurisprudence at Columbia;
Cases and Materials on the Law
of Sales published
1941 The
Cheyenne Way
published
1962 Died, Chicago, Ill.
1940–62
Served as reporter and
adviser for Uniform Commercial Code
1951 Accepted joint appointment with wife,
Soia Mentschikoff, at University of
Chicago Law School
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
386 LL.B.
to the Wall Street law firm of Shearman and
Sterling. Llewellyn was also transferred, and
subsequently worked almost exclusively on the
bank’s legal affairs. Although he enjoyed the
work and gained valuable experience in legal
drafting and international banking matters, two
years later he decided to return to teaching,
accepting a full-time position at Yale as an
assistant professor.
In 1923 Llewellyn was promoted to associate

professor. He stayed at Yale for only a year,
before accepting a post at Columbia Law School
so that his first wife could continue with her
graduate studies at Columbia University. He
remained at Columbia until 1951. While there
he authored a number of important books,
including The Bramble Bush: On Our Law and
Its Study (1931), adapted from a series of
introductory lectures he had given to first-year
law students during the 1929–30
ACADEMIC YEAR,
when he was appointed the first Betts Pro fessor
of
JURISPRUDENCE at Columbia. He also wrote
what eventually would become a leading case-
book on commercial law, Cases and Materials
on the Law of Sales, published the same year.
Llewellyn’s developing theories on legal
realism, introduced in The Bramble Bush,
brought him much attention. Llewellyn declared
that legal opinions must be examined to see
how judges are influenced by factors that might
have nothing to do with the law. He wrote that
“[f]or the long haul, for the large-scale reshaping
and growth of doctrine and our legal institu-
tions, … the almost unnoticed changes … [are]
more significant than the historic key cases.”
Thus, he believed, lawyers should be trained to
make persuasive arguments that emphasize the
particular facts of a case, as those facts some-

times have a more significant effect on the
outcome than does the applicable law.
Although Llewellyn’s views were considered
important and innovative, they also drew cri-
ticism. Opponents of his theories argued that,
for practical reasons, legal realism was difficult
to apply. Under Llewellyn’s system of jurispru-
dence, they argued, a lawyer would be required
to go to potentially ridiculous lengths to argue
a case adequately, in an effort to learn every
possible factor that could affect its outcome. As
a result, Llewellyn’s legal-realist theories never
replaced the prevailing (and well-settled) view
of the law as a set of well-defined rules to be
applied to each individual situation.
Although his theories did not have quite
the effect he had hoped for, Llewellyn is still
widely viewed as an important legal scholar and
author. His writings extend to nonlegal areas,
including a book on anthropology, The Chey-
enne Way (1941), which was a study of dispute
resolution among the Cheyenne Indians, which
he coauthored with anthropologist E. Adamson
Hoebel. Llewellyn was also active in the
LEGAL
AID
Society, the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION,
and the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (
NAACP).

In 1951 Llewellyn left Columbia for the
University of Chicago Law School, where he and
his third wife,
SOIA MENTSCHIKOFF, a co mmercial
law scholar, accepted a joint appointment.
Llewellyn taught there for nearly ten years and
also served as chief reporter on the
UNIFORM
COMMERCIAL CODE
, drafted during the early 1950s.
He died in Chicago on February 13, 1962.
FURTHER READINGS
Hull, N.E.H. 1998. Roscoe Pound and Karl Llewellyn:
Searching for an American Jurisprudence. 1997. Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago Press.
Llewellyn, Karl N. 2008. The Bramble Bush: The Classic
Lectures on the Law and Law School. New York: Oxford
Univ. Press.
Twining, William L. 1986. Karl Llewellyn and the Realist
Movement. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
LL.M.
An abbreviation for Master of Laws, which is an
advanced degree that is awarded to an individual
who already holds a J.D. upon the successful
completion of a prescribed course of graduate
study in law.
A candidate for an LL.M. degree must
complete the program set forth by the graduate
admissions department in the particular law
school he or she attends. The program ordinar-

ily entails a minimum number of credit hours,
including some credits in seminar courses and
courses in which the student must take an
examination for grading purpose s. Candidates
generally must also comply with such require-
ments as the maintenance of a minimum grade
average as well as attendance requirements.
Students enrolled in LL.M. programs may
either opt for a general degree or a degree in a
specialized area of law . An LL.M. is generally
available in such specialized areas as
INTERNA-
TIONAL LAW
, labor relations, and TAXATION.
A COURT IS DOING
ITS DUTY WHEN
…
WITH CLEAR
CONSCIOUSNESS
THAT IT UNDER-
STANDS WHAT IT IS
DOING AND WHY
,
AND WITH CLEAR
STATEMENT OF BOTH
,
IT GOES TO BAT ON
THE WHOLE OF A
BROAD SITUATION
.

—KARL LLEWELLYN
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
LL.M. 387