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LCCHP Announces Student Writing Competition For 2011

Posted: 13 May 2011 01:49 PM PDT

The Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) announces its 2011Student Writing Competition in Cultural Heritage Law. The deadline is June 10th.

LCCHP is pleased to announce its fifth annual Student Writing Competition in Cultural Heritage Law. The deadline for this year's submissions is 10 June 2011. The first place winner will receive a prize of $1000, while the second place winner will receive $500. The winning papers may also be offered publication.

Competition Details

The submitted paper must be the sole work product of a student author who is currently enrolled in or who has recently graduated from an accredited law school.

The paper must be sponsored by a faculty member at the student's law school.

It must also follow law review style and formatting.

Suitable papers may address any aspect of cultural heritage law, including art, cultural property, historic preservation, indigenous peoples, and intangible heritage (but not intellectual property, except as it relates to cultural heritage).

Only papers written after June 2010 — and not previously published — are admissible.

Only one paper may be submitted per student.

Papers must be electronically submitted directly by the student or by a faculty sponsor on the student's behalf.

The judges will focus on the student's ability to critically analyze a current issue and present a solution OR to conduct legal historical research using original sources.

Two prizes will be awarded: a first place prize of $1000 and a second place prize of $500.

The winning papers may also be offered publication in the Journal of Cultural Heritage Law.

The deadline for the 2011 Competition is 10 June 2011.

To learn more, and see past winners, visit the official website.

Redefining "Indian-ness"

Posted: 13 May 2011 01:31 PM PDT

Gregory Ablasky, University of Pennsylvania, has published Making Indians 'White': The Judicial Abolition of Native Slavery in Revolutionary Virginia and its Racial Legacy at 159 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1457 (2011). Here is the abstract.

This article traces the history of a series of "freedom suits" brought by Virginia slaves between 1772 and 1806, in which the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia judicially abolished nearly two centuries of American Indian slavery in the colony by ruling that slaves who could prove maternal descent from Native Americans were prima facie free. Delving first into the legal history of Indian slavery in colonial America, it then examines the doctrinal shift that led the courts to redefine natives as unfit subjects for enslavement, and argues that its roots lie in a racialization of slavery that separated Africans from Natives. The final section explores the national legacy of these rulings, tracing the spread of these legal principles throughout the antebellum United States and discussing how the racial ideology that divided Native Americans and African-Americans continues to pose legal hurdles in contemporary Indian law cases involving tribal recognition and the Cherokee freedmen.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.