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About this Guide
Subject
The visionary for the William S. Richardson School of Law was the former Chief Justice of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, William Shaw Richardson. Many people who passed through the Law School that bears his name delighted in conversation with "CJ." He graced our classrooms, hallways and library with his presence and aloha. As C.J. he set about to return control of interpreting the law to those with deep Hawaiian roots. He came to the highest court with an agenda to look to Hawaiian custom and tradition in deciding cases consistent with Hawaiian practice. In his sixteen years on the bench he made the beaches free to all and ensured that water resources could not be privately owned.
Purpose
C.J. Richardson changed legal precedents in Hawaii. He recognized and honored the unique legal system in Hawaii, a system built on an ancient and traditional culture. He understood that during Hawaii's territorial period decisions of the Supreme Court reflected western values that did not always harmonize well with the traditional Hawaiian culture. In 2013, the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa will be 40 years old. This bibliography is to be an aid to researchers who wish to locate source documents for writing about Richardson or the Law School or both.
Scope
While the thrust of this bibliography is to look holistically at William Shaw Richardson's life, his impact is most pronounced in the founding of the Law School at the University of Hawaii that now bears his name and in his opinions. No attempt was made to include material solely in the Hawaiian language. Some of Richardson's most important cases involve beaches, thus, some time was spent in selecting the more important beach cases to expand. This is purely to pique the curiosity of the interested reader who may not be familiar with Richardson's legal opinions.
Methodology
Few books have been written about Richardson and his impact on Hawaii and the law. But there are many archival repositories with material about Richardson for the Richardson researcher in pursuit of such a goal. In addition, legal documents such as bill numbers and legislative committee reports that record the history of the Law School are included to aid the researcher. Numerous newspaper articles are available to the researcher, only a small set of them have actually been referenced here.
Annotations
Case annotations contained in this bibliography were written by Roberta Woods, J.D., the author of this bibliography.
Citation Format
Generally, Turabian was followed but with exceptions to take advantage of the capabilities built into the software used.
Author
This bibliography was compiled with aloha by Roberta Woods, J.D. for LIS 687, Spring 2012, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. (Roberta, who holds a bachelor's degree in library science, is completing the degree requirements for the M.L.I.Sc. with this course in Hawaiian Resources.)
