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Using Vector Space Models to Understand the Circulation of Habeas Corpus in Hawai'i, 1852–92

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

Charles W. Romney
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Habeas corpus arrived in the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1840s and 1850s when it appeared in the kingdom's legislative proceedings, in the 1852 Constitution, and in a published legal decision. However, a description of the transmission and transplantation of a common-law concept to a particular place in the Pacific Ocean does little to explain how people in the kingdom used habeas corpus. Habeas corpus circulated widely in the kingdom between 1852 and 1892. Did the application of the writ in Hawai'i change the conceptual architecture of habeas corpus? Legal historians have several different methods to find out how habeas corpus functioned and how judges, lawyers, and litigants molded the writ's legal identity. Reading the published judicial opinions preserved in print volumes or subsequently digitized in databases provides a window into the way judges construed habeas corpus. The archival records of the legal cases illuminate how local lawyers and ordinary litigants wielded habeas corpus to achieve their goals. In addition to these traditional methods of legal and historical research, computer code identifies conceptual patterns in a digitized corpus of the kingdom's legal decisions. Each of these methods—close reading, archival research, and computational analysis—represent different angles on the operation and legal content of the writ.

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Articles
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Law and History Review , Volume 34 , Special Issue 4: Digital Law and History , November 2016 , pp. 999 - 1026
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2016 

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26. Some of the code followed Jockers, Text Analysis, 31–39 and 73–86.

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32. In the Matter of Chow Bick Git, 4 Haw. 385 (Haw. Kingdom, 1881), at 389–90, 392.

33. Ibid., at 391.

34. The analysis used the same preprocessing steps as outlined previously.

35. In the Matter of Chow Bick Git, 4 Haw. 385 (Haw. Kingdom, 1881), at 389–90, 392.

36. Fong Kee v. C. B. Wilson, 8 Haw. 513 (Haw. Kingdom, 1892), at 517.

37. In the Matter of Ah Mook & Chock Hin, 6 Haw. 664 (Haw. Kingdom, 1887), at 665.

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42. Sanford Dole to George Dole, March 6, 1888, box 3, Dole Family Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

43. For example, see “Decision, In the Matter of Masu Suzuki,” March 7, 1910, case 33, box 5, Records relating to Habeas Corpus, Records of the District Courts of the United States, Records of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii (1959- ) and for its Predecessor, the Territory of Hawaii (1900–59), Record Group 21, National Archives Regional Branch—San Francisco.

44. In Re Man Nun, 7 Haw. 454 (Haw. Kingdom, 1888), at 462.

45. In the Matter of M. M. Webster, 1 Haw. 95 (Haw. Kingdom, 1852).

46. Nott v. Kanahele, 4 Haw. 14 (Haw. Kingdom, 1878).

47. Nott v. Kanahele, 4 Haw. 14 (Haw. Kingdom, 1878), at 19; on the majority opinion and dissent, see Beechert, Edward D., Working in Hawaii: A Labor History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985), 52 Google Scholar.

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52. In the Matter of Kamaka (K.), a minor, October 23, 1883, case 1554, box 43, S6-RJ-HSA.

53. Matter of Rebecca, Mother Judith to Justice R. Bickerton, July 17, 1890, case 2893, box 77, S6-RJ-HSA.

54. Between 1877 and 1885 approximately 2,500 Pacific islanders migrated to the Kingdom; most came from the “Gilbert Islands.” Kuykendall, The Hawaiian Kingdom, Volume III, 126–127.

55. In the Matter of Nei Kamarawa, January 9, 1883, case 1558, box 43, S6-RJ-HSA.

56. For example, see H. Bingham to John Busk, September 4, 1882, folder: “Immigration-South Sea Islanders, 1882–1887,” box 18, SF-RDI-HSA. Mr. Bingham is probably Hiram Bingham. See Kuykendall, The Hawaiian Kingdom, Volume III, 128.

57. In the Matter of Nei Kamarawa, January 9, 1883, case 1558, box 43, S6-RJ-HSA.

58. The usual citation for Pool v. Gott is 14 Law Reporter 269, but I assume the judges read about the case in a treatise or law review such as the Albany Law Journal 26 (1883): 27.

59. In Re, Nei Kamarawa, Opinion of the Court, case 1558, box 43, S6-RJ-HSA.

60. The literary scholar Cindy Weinstein sees Pool v. Gott as a part of a shift in American culture in which an understanding of family changed from biology and contract to affective relations. The feelings of Lydia mattered. Weinstein, Cindy, Family, Kinship, and Sympathy in Nineteenth Century American Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 57 Google Scholar.

61. In Re, Nei Kamarawa, Opinion of the Court, case 1558, box 43, S6-RJ-HSA.

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