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    (Re)Righting History: Deconstructing the Court's Narrative of Hawai'i's Past
    (University of Hawaii Law Review, 2017) Andrade, Troy
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    Ke Kanawai Mamalahoe: Equality in Our Splintered Profession
    (University of Hawaii Law Review, 2010) Andrade, Troy
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    (Re)Righting History: Deconstructing the Courtʻs Narrative of Hawaiʻi's Past
    (University of Hawaiʻi Law Review, 2017) Andrade, Troy J. H.
    In a recently published article, Chief Judge James S. Burns (retired) contends that the Hawaiian Crown Lands were owned by all the people ofHawai'i and were not held in trust for Native Hawaiians as Professor Jon Van Dyke argued in his book, Who Owns the Crown Lands. Although this author, as with many others, takes issue with the research and conclusions of that article, this Article focuses upon the larger issue of the reliance on the Supreme Court of the United States' jaded recitation of Hawai'i's complex political and legal history. The article specifically relies upon two Supreme Court opinions, Rice v. Cayetano and Hawai'i v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs-two politically charged cases that dealt large blows to the Native Hawaiian community particularly because of the Court's skewed views of Hawai'i's past. Native Hawaiians, like most indigenous people, are faced with a legal system that rarely recognizes their stories and their histories. Due in large part to the enshrined principle of stare decisis, Native Hawaiians have been left with a less than adequate narrative of their legal and political history that has ramifications for other indigenous and marginalized communities across the United States. The Court's narrative is oftentimes then interpreted, particularly by jurists and legal practitioners, as the "official" history of a people. This Article criticizes the Court's writing of Hawaiian history in its opinions and also the re-writing of history and silencing of Native voices that occurs when jurists and practitioners blindly adhere to "precedent." This Article demands careful use of history when analyzing complex issues involving Native Hawaiians, and provides methods for ensuring an accurate recitation of history.
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    Ke Kānāwai Māmalahoe: Equality in Our Splintered Profession
    (U. of Haw. Law. Rev., 2010) Andrade, Troy J.H.
    The words "Equal Justice Under Law," carved into the western facade of the United States Supreme Court building, exemplify the nation's commitment to principles of fairness and equality-principles that run deep within the American construct ofjustice.' For Americans, these principles have been "a rallying cry, a promise, an article of national faith,"2 claiming its origins in the nation's Declaration of Independence. In Hawai'i, equality has been a mandate codified in the first law: Kamehameha and Ka-hauku'i paddled to Papa'i and on to Kea'au in Puna where some men and women were fishing, and a little child sat on the back of one of the men. Seeing them about to go away, Kamehameha leaped from his canoe intending to catch and kill the men, but they all escaped with the women except two men who stayed to protect the man with the child. During the struggle Kamehameha caught his foot in a crevice of the rock and was stuck fast; and the fishermen beat him over the head with a paddle. Had it not been that one of the men was hampered with the child and their ignorance that this was Kamehameha with whom they were struggling, Kamehameha would have been killed that day. This quarrel was named Ka-lele-iki, and from the striking of Kamehameha's head with a paddle came the law of Mamala-hoe (Broken paddle) for Kamehameha.' With the memory of a wooden paddle shattered across his face, Kamehameha, the first sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands, would forever internalize the responsibility he had to his people. In his royal edict, Ke Kanawai Mamalahoe [Law of the Splintered Paddle], the first law of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, Kamehameha galvanized the supremacy of the law, protected people from physical harm, and enshrined equal rights for all. Centuries later, Kamehameha's vision of equality, like the words "Equal Justice Under Law," although admirably close, have failed to come to fruition in many aspects of life. Discrimination and exclusion have impeded the practice of law and have truly splintered the legal profession.