Early American Labor Conspiracy Cases

This thorough analysis provides an answer by a labor economist to Leonard Levy's historical view of Commonwealth v. Hunt and the impact of Chief Justice Shaw's decision on subsequent labor law. Rare works by Sayre (1922), Witte (1926), Nelles (1932), Landis (1942), Teller (1940), Forkosch (1962), and Levy (1957) are reviewed and compared. Their several interpretations are tested by a content analysis of the cases themselves, providing a unique source of the relevant but often unavailable original sources. Four tables of case characteristics, a table presenting the judges' hostility scale, and 14 pages of notes and related legal references aid the reader. The preface places the conspiracy issue in the modern perspective of the 1964 House of Lords decision of Rookes v. Barnard. Originally published in 1967.