64
votes
Accepted
Could women be crucified under Roman law?
In Antiquities of the Jews, the ancient historian Josephus reported an incident where the Emperor Tiberius explicitly ordered a woman to be crucified:
Mundus had a freedwoman, who had been made ...
- 97.2k
59
votes
Accepted
Why can I visit battlefields, but not battleships?
Respect, preservation, and safety.
While it's possible there may still be remains on a battlefield, people do their best to find and remove the bodies and bury them properly.
Sunken ships often ...
- 54.7k
58
votes
Accepted
In ancient Rome, could free-born Romans become slaves?
That is for sure an overgeneralisation, but so is Wikipedia's. There are some elements of truth in both: Ancient Rome held that freedom could not be sold, and in principle a freeborn person could not ...
- 97.2k
58
votes
Accepted
Why were Royal Navy ships forbidden to attack the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo in Argentinian waters?
The exclusion zone mentioned in the article is described in the Wikipedia article as follows:
The Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) was an area declared by the United Kingdom on 30 April 1982 covering a ...
- 77.2k
55
votes
Accepted
How common were marital duels in medieval Europe?
Not that common.
Very curiously, we do not see husband and wife, necessarily, in these pictures. Talhoffer only writes of man ("er") and woman ("frow"). (More illustrations, with ...
- 80.6k
49
votes
Accepted
Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
In the UK, the 1872 Licencing Act made it an offence to be:
... drunk while in charge on any highway or other public place of any
carriage, horse, cattle, or steam engine, or who is drunk when in
...
- 77.2k
49
votes
Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
Very little scholarly work has apparently been done on this, so my answer will closely follow the article "The Culture of Tort Law in France" by Jean-Sébastien Borghetti (2012).
The question ...
- 18.3k
48
votes
Why can I visit battlefields, but not battleships?
In the UK, the wreckage of military aircraft and designated military vessels is protected under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. Only 12 vessels are currently designated as controlled ...
- 77.2k
47
votes
Accepted
When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
This is an attempt to escape the rule against perpetuities.
No interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than twenty-one years after some life in being at the creation of the ...
- 2,067
45
votes
Accepted
How did German unification affect existing sentences for criminal convicts?
Thanks to some hints provided in the comments to my original post here, I have been able to locate some sources that answer my questions, at least on a high level:
Beginning in 1989, even before the ...
- 2,790
44
votes
Accepted
Why was "leaping into the river" a valid trial outcome to prove one's innocence?
It was a divine judgement in cases where the evidence was inconclusive and previous attempts to resolve the case had failed. In some cases at least, it was only used after other attempts at a ...
- 108k
43
votes
Accepted
Were there U.S. weapon restrictions during 19th century?
The official way we determine how the Constitution is "understood" is through US Supreme Court decisions, and there haven't been any on that particular subject.
There have been basically 3 ...
- 117k
42
votes
How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
The governance model for early corporations is the chartered city; a community granted town privileges and, if also free, independence from feudal obligations to local sovereigns or lords and debt of ...
- 71.9k
39
votes
What were sandbags used for in medieval duels?
The sandbag is from a quintain, a "jousting dummy" if you will:
On Offham green there stands a Quintain, a thing now rarely to be met with, being a machine much used in former times by youth, as ...
- 71.9k
39
votes
Accepted
Was Richard I's imprisonment by Leopold of Austria justified?
The Middle Ages was not particularly known for being a civil and orderly period.
Leopold V had no authority of any kind to arrest Richard I. He did it simply because he wanted to, and could. The ...
- 97.2k
34
votes
Accepted
Nuremberg Laws - Did they affect existing marriages between Jews and Non-Jews?
It is very rare for new laws to apply retroactively, even Hitler's Nuremberg Laws. In this case, the prohibition of mixed marriages did not apply to couples who were already married. However, as the ...
- 77.2k
34
votes
Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?
While this isn't exactly a historical answer, it does provide a reasonable part of an explanation:
Different people pay the costs in a lawsuit in the USA and France
In France, the legal costs are paid ...
- 1,107
33
votes
What did an ancient Roman certificate of land ownership look like; or, what did it consist of?
Ancient Rome had land deeds and registrations. Most of it has long since been lost, but there are still plenty of examples. Note that Roman rule lasted a long time and stretched across three ...
- 97.2k
33
votes
Were secret treaties ratified? How did they become official while remaining secret?
There are some misconceptions about what ratification means. Though it is now common for treaties to be ratified by a legislature, that has never been essential to the ratification process.
In ...
- 97.2k
33
votes
Who had the shortest time in going from imprisonment to head of state within democratic processes?
Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 is a possible candidate.
He was imprisoned in June 1995 on charges of being involved in plotting a coup and was released in June 1998. ...
- 108k
32
votes
How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
The Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) is generally seen as the first company with stocks, shareholders and board members. It didn't have 1 director, it had 17: "De Heren ...
- 20.3k
32
votes
Why was "leaping into the river" a valid trial outcome to prove one's innocence?
Peter Leeson from George Mason University has argued that medieval trial by ordeal worked because people believed that they worked. Thus, only the innocent were willing to undergo the ordeal. If this ...
- 981
28
votes
Accepted
How did the US government manage to enforce the 1980 boycott of the Olympic Games in Russia?
Enforce is the wrong word to use here, because while the idea may have began with the US government, formally speaking the decision to participate or not rested with each National Olympic Committee. ...
- 97.2k
28
votes
Accepted
Are there any accounts written by torturers on their actions?
Takashi Nagase wrote a book about his experiences during and after the Second World War entitled Crosses and Tigers, and financed a Buddhist temple on the Thai-Burma railway to atone for his actions ...
- 1,312
27
votes
Accepted
When did one-way mirrors become widely used by police?
Surprisingly enough, in England, screens for identity parades did not come in at all until the late 1980s.
A poke around the British Newspaper Archive (paywall, sorry) found this article from Nov 1986,...
- 9,112
26
votes
Accepted
Had there been instances of national states banning harmful imports before the mid-19th C Opium Wars?
"Banning harmful imports" was often done.
Prime example being the satanic brew.
Coffee was banned in Mecca, Italy, Contantinople/Ottoman Empire, Prussia.
Similarly: tea was banned in East Frisia, ...
- 80.6k
25
votes
Accepted
In medieval Europe, were children born in an annulled marriage automatically illegitimate?
An annulment does not "break" a marriage, as does a divorce. It declares that the marriage never happened in the first place.
This meant that the married couple would revert to their previous legal ...
- 77.2k
24
votes
Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
"Causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving" (whether drunk or not) was made illegal by the Offences against the Person Act 1861. It is interpreted as applying to:
drivers of horse-drawn ...
- 393
24
votes
Accepted
What is the history of the university asylum law?
This goes back to Frederick Barbarossa. He granted the university the so called scholar's privilege the privilegium scholasticum or authentica habita in 1150s. Full universities had to be granted ...
- 80.6k
22
votes
Accepted
Was slavery in the United States legally limited to blacks?
Mostly, but not entirely.
Several states including Virginia explicitly recognized slaves that were purely descended from Indians.
It is important to realize that the law often had no bearing on ...
- 37.7k
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