.:The U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals:.

Courtroom 4
The historic circuit library.

Division Four Library Courtroom Biographies Byron White United States Courthouse
Welcome to the Byron White US Courthouse! The following brief biographies of the individuals whose names are carved on the wood panels atop the walls of the library courtroom (division four) are listed in order of their appearance, beginning on the southern end of the panel over the door leading to the judicial conference room.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Le Petit Caporal, 1769-1821): Emperor, military general, and sponsor of the Napoleonic Code. Napoleon was the first to successfully codify the laws of France. His civil code functioned not only to standardize laws, but to increase the rights of individuals. The Napoleonic Code is still followed to varying degrees in Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Louisiana.
Thomas Erskine (1750-1823): British Whig lawyer who helped establish modern civil liberties by successfully defending politicians and social reformers from charges of treason in an era marked with repression in response to fears generated by the French Revolution. He was instrumental in abolishing the concept of constructive treason, whereby persons could be convicted of treason on the basis of a series of acts, none of which by itself amounted to treason. He also helped create important rules regarding the proof of law as well as the defense of insanity. Some of his more notable clients included Thomas Paine (indicted for treason) and Queen Caroline (charged by King George IV with adultery).
Henri-François d’Aguesseau (1668-1751): Chancellor of France on and off between 1717 and 1750; he continued the codification of French law and was responsible for important ordinances on donations, testaments, and successions. He improved court procedures and promoted greater uniformity in the application of the laws.
Hugo Grotius (1583-1645): Dutch poet, jurist, scholar, and “Father of International Law.” Grotius wrote De Jure Belli ac Pacis, the fundamental text of modern international law. While serving as attorney general of Holland, he sided with the more tolerant Church of Holland in a political-religious dispute with the orthodox Calvinist church of the Netherlands. His side lost, and Grotius was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason. He later escaped and served as Swedish Ambassador in Paris.
John Freeman Mitford, Lord Redesdale (1748-1830): British legal scholar famous for his writing on the principles of equity. Appointed as Irish chancellor, he was responsible for the chancellor’s court of equity. Redesdale’s writings on equitable principles influenced our own notions of substantive and procedural due process.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C. - 43 B.C.): Roman soldier, statesman, scholar, lawyer, poet. Cicero is generally regarded as the greatest orator Rome ever produced. After completing military service, Cicero won his greatest fame as the advocate who humbled the great Roman general Verres in a corruption trial, besting Verres’ advocate Hortensius, the man who until that time had been regarded as Rome’s premier lawyer. Cicero’s election as consul in 63 B.C. indicated the supreme heights his oratorical skills had reached. Cicero’s election was seen as a victory for conservative forces in Rome who aimed to protect the power and privileges of the patriciate. During his consulship, he put down the Catilinian conspiracy, executing Catiline and four confederates. Five years later, enemies of Cicero passed laws condemning Cicero for executing Catiline without trial. Exiled, Cicero left Rome for Greece, returning several years later when the Senate cleared his name. Upon his return, Cicero tried to reestablish his political fortunes, but his alliance with Pompey in the struggle with Julius Caesar sealed his doom. Though not present or involved in the conspiracy to kill Caesar on March 15, 44 B.C., Cicero was sought for execution by the triumvirate that subsequently ruled Rome (Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian, Julius Caesar’s adopted son and later Emperor Augustus). Cicero was captured and executed on December 7, 43 B.C.
John Scott Eldon (1751-1838): Lord Chancellor of England for almost twenty-seven years. Eldon promoted the use of the injunction and clarified the rules for its use. He also significantly developed trademark law by preventing merchants from selling goods under others’ name. Eldon exercised a significant conservative influence during the period of the French Revolution. He opposed the abolition of the slave trade, opposed the abolition of debtors’ prisons, opposed reforming the House of Commons, and opposed political emancipation for Roman Catholics.
*Justinian I (Flavius Justinianus) (483-565 A.D.):* Byzantine Emperor and legal reformer. Justinian oversaw the codification of Roman law. The four volumes: the Codex Constitutionum (the imperial constitutional code), the Digesta (codification of the writings of Roman jurists), the Institutiones (a handbook for law students), and the Novellae Constitutiones Post Codicem (embodying Justinian’s later contributions to the law) constituted the definitive codification of Roman law, and are known as the Justinian Code. Justinian’s work helped combat corruption and human suffering in his empire, and marked a change in Roman law from its previous common law style development to a code-based system of jurisprudence. Justinian’s Code serves as the foundation of the Napoleonic Code.
Moses (14th century B.C.): Law-giver, prophet. The Biblical account of Moses shows him as a foundling Hebrew who was raised in the Egyptian court, probably during the reign of Ramses II. He fled Egypt after he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave, and he lived for a time in northwest Arabia. It was at this time that Moses received his call from God, directing Moses to return to Egypt and deliver the Hebrews from the bondage of slavery and bring them to the Land of Canaan (modern day Israel). After leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, Moses arrived at Mount Sinai where God established his Covenant with the Hebrew people. This Covenant included the Ten Commandments and the laws that Moses established for the people. As the Hebrews continued on their journey to Canaan, they began to resist Moses’ leadership. At one point, Moses erupted in rage and broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Towards the end of the journey, God told Moses to bring water forth from a rock in the barren desert by speaking with the stone and praying to God. Tired of dealing with such a stiff-necked people who were demanding water, Moses struck the rock with his rod. As a result, God told Moses he would not be allowed to enter Canaan. After a generation of wanderings, the Hebrew people renewed the Sinai Covenant, and Moses was able to climb Mount Pisgah to see the valleys of Canaan. The Hebrews never saw Moses again, and his death and burial remain shrouded in mystery.
Charles Fearne (1742—1794): English jurist, son of Charles Fearne, judge-advocate of the admiralty. Wrote On the Learning of Contingent Remainders and Executory Devises (1772), the work which did more than any other to preserve the Rule in Shelley’s Case as black letter law (as distinguished from a rule of construction). (Mansfield had tried to abolish the Rule but was unsuccessful.)
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780): Author of the Commentaries on the Laws of England, the basis of legal education in Great Britain and North America. The Commentaries were especially influential in the development of American law in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Blackstone’s lectures on the common law, begun in 1753, were the first University lectures on English law. In 1758, he was elected the first holder of the Vinerian Professorship of Law at Oxford University. Blackstone was also a Member of Parliament, the solicitor general to the Queen, and a judge on the Court of Common Pleas.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626): English philosopher, scientist, politician, and jurist. Bacon’s Novum Organum, his most celebrated work, outlines his scientific method. Bacon engaged in a series of conflicts with Sir Edward Coke in an effort to safeguard the royal prerogative. Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor by James I, but he was later ousted on bribery charges.
Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789):English magistrate, legal commentator, and writer who is best remembered for writing the first history of music in English. Hawkins also wrote a biography of his close friend, writer and lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and he served as executor of Johnson’s estate.
Joseph D. Chitty (1776-1841): Leading English legal scholar of the early nineteenth century. Chitty wrote extensively, including treatises on the law of nations and on England’s criminal law.
Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114 B.C. - 50 B.C.): Roman orator and politician. Along with Cicero, established Roman law and Roman rhetoric as among the great achievements of the late classical Republic. Despite his defeat in the trial of Verres at the hands of Cicero, Hortensius went on to win election as consul in 69 B.C., and was a political ally of Cicero’s in the struggle with the Roman factions that supported expanding the political power of the merchant and commercial classes.
Sir Thomas Littleton (1422-1481): English sheriff, recorder, and judge, Littleton wrote the first important English legal text neither written in Latin nor significantly influenced by Roman law, entitled Littleton on Tenures. It is perhaps the first book on English law ever to be printed. Littleton’s treatise, written in law French, a specialized form of Anglo-Norman, comprises a comprehensive look at medieval land tenures. It is still cited as authoritative today.
Gaius (130-180): Roman jurist, author of the Institutes, the most influential Roman jurisprudential text until Justinian’s code. Gaius’s Institutes were divided into four books, the first on persons, the second and third on property, and the fourth on the forms of legal actions.
William Murray Mansfield (1705-1793): Chief Justice of the King’s Bench of Great Britain for 32 years. Lord Mansfield made many important contributions to the field of commercial law. He had a strong reputation for fairness, even going so far as to conduct such an even-handed trial of the leader of an anti-Catholic mob that had burned Mansfield’s house that the leader was acquitted. Mansfield gave important judicial recognition to, and created many of the modern rules for, bills of exchanges, promissory notes, and bank checks. He created the entire jurisprudence of marine insurance. He also developed the concept of restitution.
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634): English jurist and author. Coke defended the common law against the Crown’s claims of royal prerogative, ruling as Chief Justice of the Court of Common pleas, in favor of the Supremacy of the common law over the Crown. Once Speaker of the House of Commons, as Queen Elizabeth I and King James I’s attorney general he defended royal privilege and vigorously prosecuted the great treason trials of the Earls of Essex and Southampton, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. He became chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1606, but earned the ire of James I by upholding the supremacy of the common law. An appointment (as a bribe) to the Court of King’s Bench and as privy councilor (making him the first lord chief justice of England) failed to sway him from holding that the common law was supreme over all except Parliament. He fell out of favor, but returned to public life after abducting his 14-year-old daughter from his wife and marrying her to the Duke of Buckingham’s brother. After again serving in the Privy Council and the Star Chamber, he returned to Parliament, where his bill of liberties became the Petition of Right -- he molded precedents, including the Magna Carta, into a charter of liberty limiting the royal prerogative.
Baron Ellesmere (1540-1617): An English lawyer who secured the independence of the Court of Chancery from the common-law courts, promoting the formulation of the principles of equitable relief. Ellesmere later became Lord Chancellor under James I (preceding Francis Bacon). Ellesmere’s use of equity to grant relief against the common-law courts created a conflict with Sir Edward Coke, then Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. The conflict was resolved in favor of Ellesmere and equity only by the King’s direct intercession.