Background
Mittlebeeler, Emmet Vaughn was born on August 8, 1915 in Louisville. Son of Jacob J. and Katherine (Moorman) Mittlebeeler.
(Following the 1898 Southern Rhodesia Order in Council whi...)
Following the 1898 Southern Rhodesia Order in Council which effectively removed all criminal authority from the traditional African courts of Rhodesia, sole criminal jurisdiction was exercised by the European courts. This volume is a history of court decisions in the area in which African cus-tom and Western law clashed most forcibly -- marriage regulations, sexual offences, witch-craft and homicide. In each of these areas, Professor Mittle-beeler presents the significant cases and ju-dicial opinions, statutory enactments, and surrounding legislative debate. Reconstruct-ing Rhodesia's legal history, he is constantly concerned with the interplay of African cus-tom and Western law. In his effort to chart the ways in which custom was thwarted, ac-commodated, or supported, he presents each case in detail, supplementing the sketchier accounts with anthropological information. Whether tracing the uncertain evolution of matrimonial law -- which attempted to ac-commodate some traditional practice -- or the all-out effort to eliminate witchcraft -- which decisively reversed customary values -- Mittlebeeler provides a comprehensive view of the forces that have moved partici-pants on both sides of the conflict and a careful record of the shifting resolutions that have been reached in the past seventy years. In his effort to clarify beliefs and mo-tives, he explores such varied phenomena as African resistance to marriage registration, reverence for diviners, demands of bureau-cratic administration, and the threat to po-litical authority posed by witchcraft. In presenting each case, he examines the cus-tom which may lie behind the violation of Western law -- "seedbearing" in an alleged act of adultery, fertility sacrifice encompassed in ritual murder, martial rights exercised in an alleged rape and the doctrines, conscious and unconscious, which judges have followed and legislators enjoined. Although as a legal historian the author focuses upon particular cases and statutes, in a lengthy concluding section he turns to the actual administration of law in Rho-desia, and the problems which confront any African government -- black or white -- in at-tempting to reconcile traditional beliefs with modernity and forge some measure of na-tional unity. Rhodesia's legal history is pecu-liarly its own, but what can be learned from that history extends well beyond Rhodesia's boundaries.
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lawyer Political science educator
Mittlebeeler, Emmet Vaughn was born on August 8, 1915 in Louisville. Son of Jacob J. and Katherine (Moorman) Mittlebeeler.
Bachelor with honors, University Louisville, 1936. Bachelor of Laws, University Louisville, 1939. Juris Doctor, University Louisville, 1970.
Master of Arts, University Chicago, 1950. Doctor of Philosophy, University Chicago, 1951.
Assistant attorney general State of Kentucky, Frankfort, 1945—1948. Congressional assistant House of Representatives, Washington, 1953—1954, consultant committee government operations, 1956. Consultant Administrative Office United States Courts, Washington, 1964, Research Analysis Corporation, 1967—1969.
Professor government & public administration American University, Washington. University professor emeritus. Professor public administration & international relations Troy State University.
With United States Air Force, 1984—1987. Lecturer international relations American government University Maryland. Lecturer international relations Boston University, Overseas with United States Army, 1988, African Universities, 1962—1963, 1969—1970, 1976—1978.
With United States Army Air Force, 1942-1945, European Theatre of Operations.
(Following the 1898 Southern Rhodesia Order in Council whi...)
Member of North America Vexillological Association (founder), Kentucky Bar Association, Fulbright Alumni Association, American Political Science Association, Filson Club.