Cornell Law Review

Recent News & Events

Professor Michele Goodwin receives the John Hope Franklin Prize, Honorable Mention

Professor Michele Goodwin is honored to receive the John Hope Franklin Prize, Honorable Mention for her Article The Thirteenth Amendment: Modern Slavery, Capitalism, and Mass Incarceration, which was published in Cornell Law Review‘s Volume 104. This Article exposes how the institution of slavery persists in the American penal system. The article provides a robust historical…

Jul 2020

Introduction: Reviving the Thirteenth Amendment

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Amendment XIII Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. What has been the legal significance…

Sep 2019

The Thirteenth Amendment in Legal Theory

George Rutherglen, John Barbee Minor Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia.

Introduction Unique among constitutional amendments, the Thirteenth Amendment has been eclipsed by its own success. It gave rise directly to the Civil Rights Act of 1866,11. Act of April 9, 1866, § 1, 14 Stat. 27 (1866). which was enacted under Section 2 of the Amendment; and the rights conferred by the 1866 Act, in turn, served…

Sep 2019