Professor Biancalana has served on the faculty since 1983, coming to the University of Cincinnati following a Bigelow Fellowship at the University of Chicago Law School.
Professor Biancalana's field of research is English legal history. Acknowledged as a leading scholar of English legal history, his book The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England 1176-1502 is considered a work of major and lasting importance in this field.
His articles in the field have won numerous awards. In fact, he has been twice awarded the Sutherland Prize by the American Society for Legal History, an award given to the best article published in English legal history in the preceding year.
Publications
Books
- The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England 1176-1502 (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
Book Chapters
- Dower, Fee Tail, Petty Assizes, and Real Actions in The Oxford History of English Law, 1399-1483 (2004)
- Medieval Uses in Itinera Fiduciae—Trust and Treuhand in Historical Perspective (R. H. Helmholz and Reinhard Zimmermann, eds., Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1998)
Articles, Essays & Book Reviews
- Testamentary Cases in Fifteenth-Century Chancery, 76 Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 283 (2008)
- The Origins and Early History of the Writs of Entry, 24 Law & Hist. Rev. 513 (2007)
- Contractual Penalties in the King's Court 1260-1360, 64 Cambridge L.J. 212 (2005)
- The Development of the Penal Bond with Conditional Defeasance, 26 J. Legal Hist. 103 (2005)
- The Legal Framework of Arbitration in Fifteenth-Century England, 47 Am. J. Legal Hist. 347 (2005)
- Monetary Penalty Clauses in Thirteenth-Century England, 73 Legal Hist. Rev. 231 (2005)
- The Politics and Law of Philoctetes, 17 Law & Lit. 155 (2005)
- Originalism and the Commerce Clause, 71 U. Cin. L. Rev. 383 (2002) (symposium)
- Actions of Covenant 1200-1330, 20 Law & Hist. Rev. 1 (2002) (awarded Sutherland Prize by American Society for Legal History)
- Book Review, 89 Cath. Hist. Rev. 551 (2003) (reviewing Robert C. Palmer, Selling the Church: The English Parish in Law, Commerce, and Religions 1350-1550 (2002))
- Thirteenth-Century Custodia, 22 J. Legal Hist. 14 (2001)
- For Want of Justice: Legal Reforms of Henry II, 88 Colum. L. Rev. 433 (1988)
Presentations
- Actions of Debt in the Fifteenth Century, Sixteenth British Legal History Conference, London (July 2005)
- Origins of the Penalty Bond, 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History (2003)
- Penalty Clauses in England Indiana, Bloomington, University School of Law (April 2003)
- Penalty Clauses from Roman Law to English Common Law, 2003 Sewanee Medieval Colloquium (2003)
- Penalty Clauses in England, 1150 to 1350, University of Chicago Law School (February 2003)
- Actions of Covenant in the Thirettenth Century, Ohio State Legal History Seminar (October 1999)
- Actions of Covenant, Fourteenth British Legal History Conference, Edinburgh (July 1999)
- The Medieval Use, University of Regensburg, Germany (1996)
- A New Look at Tender Offers, Cincinnati Bar Association C.L.E. (March 1989)
- The Administrative Image of English Society and the Origins of the Common Law, North American Conference on British Studies (October 1989)
- Ohio Control Share Acquisition Statute, Cincinnati Bar Association, Fourth Annual Institute on Corporate and Securities (March 1988)
- The Origins of Common Law Dower, Harvard Law School (October 1988)
- The Origins of the Common Law, Institute for Historical Research, London University (January 1988)
- The Legal Reforms of Henry II, Annual Meeting for the American Society of Legal History (October 1987)
- The Origin of the Widow's Share at Common Law, Indiana University, March 1987
- Taltarum's Case and The Common Recovery, The Conference on English Legal History Manuscripts (April 1986)
- The Origins of the Writs of Dower, International Congress on Medieval Studies (May 1984)
Courses
- Constitutional Law I
- Constitutional Law II
- Corporations I
- English Legal History
Summer 2009
Joseph announced his retirement from the College, effective August 31, 2009.
February 2009
Joseph’s article, For Want of Justice: Legal Reforms of Henry II, 88 Colum. L. Rev. 433 (1988), was cited in James Grimmelmann, Virtual World Feudalism, 118 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 126 (2009).
December 2008
Joseph published Testamentary Cases in Fifteenth-Century Chancery, 76 Tijdschrift voor Rechsgeshiedenis 283 (2008).
Joseph’s articles, For Want of Justice: Legal Reforms of Henry II, 88 Colum. L. Rev. 433 (1988), and The Origins and Development of the Penalty Bond with Conditional Defeasance, J. Legal Hist. 103 (2005), were cited in Joshua C. Tate, Caregiving and the Case for Testamentary Freedom, 42 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 129 (2008).
January 2008
Joseph's article, The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England, Cambridge University Press, 2001, was cited in Mike Macnair, Equity and Conscience, 27 Oxford J. Legal Stud. 659 (2007).
October 2007
Joseph published The Origin and Early History of the Writs of Entry, 25 Law & Hist. Rev. 513 (2007). His article, Early Chancery Jurisdiction over Testamentary Matters, was accepted for publication by Tijdschrift voor Rechsgeschiedenis.
Summer 2007
Joseph presented Assumpsit, Consideration and Early Chancery at the 18th British Legal History Conference at Oxford. He also participated on a Panel on Chancery with Michael McNair (Oxford), Neil Jones (Cambridge), and John Langbain (Yale).
May 2007
Joseph published The Legal Framework of Arbitration in Fifteenth-Century England, 47 Am. J. Legal Hist. 347 (2005).
January 2007
Joseph was named Judge Joseph P. Kinneary Professor of Law.
Joseph's article, Originalism and the Commerce Clause, 71 U. Cin. L. Rev. 383 (2002), was cited in Adam A. Perlin, What Makes Originalism Original?: A Comparative Analysis of Originalism and its Role in Commerce Clause Jurisprudence in the United States and Australia, 23 UCLA Pac. Basin L.J. 94 (2005).
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