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# American Society for Legal History

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://aslh.net/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [2023 Preyer Award Winners](https://aslh.net/2023-preyer-award-winners/) - The ASLH is pleased to announce this year's Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars. They are: Tamar Menashe (Emory), “A Person of the Imperial Supreme Court: Jewish Litigation in Speyer and the Struggle to Belong" Rebecca Horwitz-Willis (Harvard), "‘Educating a Class of Unfortunates:’ Crime Control, Child Protection, and the Compulsory School Movement, 1888 - 1903" Named after
- [Announcing the 2023 Hurst Fellows](https://aslh.net/announcing-the-2023-hurst-fellows/) - The ASLH is proud to announce the recipients of the 2023 Hurst fellowships. The Hurst fellows will attend the twelfth James Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History. A flagship program of the ASLH, the Hurst also enjoys generous support from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where Willard Hurst taught for many years. “The
- [Barbara Aronstein Black](https://aslh.net/barbara-aronstein-black/) - Barbara Aronstein Black died at age 92 in early January 2026. She was the first woman president of ASLH and the first woman dean of an ivy-league law school, at Columbia. Black’s tenure in both overlapped significantly, as her presidency of ASLH lasted four years (which was standard for the era), from 1985-89; the deanship
- [David J. Langum, Sr.](https://aslh.net/david-j-langum-sr/) - David Langum died on March 29, 2026 at age 85 in his home in Birmingham, Alabama. An eminent legal historian and prolific scholar, David authored eight books and dozens of academic articles and book reviews. He taught legal history, property law, evidence, and real estate law at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University
- [James Brundage](https://aslh.net/james-brundage/) - James A. Brundage (1929–2021) was one of the most important American medievalists of the twentieth century. His work was acclaimed here and abroad. Starting with a study of the canon law and the Crusades, Brundage’s interest in the laws of the medieval church gradually widened. It deepened as well. He brought to light the canonistic
- [New Works in Legal History: Displays at the Detroit Meeting](https://aslh.net/new-works-in-legal-history-displays-at-the-detroit-meeting/) - New Works in Legal History: Many legal historians publish books with presses that are not represented at the conference book sale. In recognition of this fact, the ASLH will host a table to showcase this important new research at the Detroit book exhibit. If you published a book recently that will not otherwise be represented at
- [Projects & Proposals Funding Deadline Extended](https://aslh.net/projects-proposals-funding-deadline-extended/) - The ASLH is pleased to announce the extension of the deadline for Projects and Proposals funding until 9/18. The goal of P&P is the "funding of new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical scholarship and in the communication of legal history to all its possible publics and audiences. It is the mission of
- [ASLH Election 2025: Candidate Bios](https://aslh.net/aslh-election-2025-candidate-bios/) - PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE Michelle McKinley I am a legal historian of slavery in the early modern Iberian empire, and the Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law at the University of Oregon Law School. I have been an active and committed member of the ASLH since I first attended the conference in Philadelphia in 2010. I have
- [Hurst Summer Institute 2025](https://aslh.net/hurst-summer-institute-2025/) - The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) and the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin Law School are pleased to invite applications for the 13th biennial Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History. The two-week program features presentations by guest scholars, discussions of core readings in legal history and analysis of the work of the participants in
- [ASLH Book Prize Winners - 2024](https://aslh.net/aslh-book-prize-winners-2024/) - The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award Yanna Yannakakis, Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke, 2023) Yanna Yannakakis’ Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico is a magistral work in global legal history. Yannakakis offers an innovative account of how the concept and significance of custom developed through interactions
- [ASLH Article Prize Winners 2024](https://aslh.net/aslh-article-prize-winners-2024/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Article Prize Katie A. Moore, “To Counterfeit Is Death? Money, Print, and Punishment in the Early American Public Sphere,” Early American Studies 2 (2023): 233-271 This article investigates how paper currency became a powerful site of meaning-making in seventeenth and early eighteenth-century America. Exploring the establishment of counterfeiting as a crime,
- [ASLH Dissertation Prize Winners 2024](https://aslh.net/aslh-dissertation-prize-winners-2024/) - William Nelson Cromwell Dissertation Prize Min Tae Cha, “Constitutional Religion: Presbyterians between the British and American Empires,” (Princeton University, 2023) “Constitutional Religion” is an astonishingly ambitious project that seeks to refold religious ideas and practices into the history of Anglo-American constitutional thought. Following Presbyterians in the British Empire and the United States in the long
- [Early Career (Virtual) Legal History Workshop](https://aslh.net/early-career-virtual-legal-history-workshop/) - ASLH Early Career (Virtual) Legal History Workshop Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2025 The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) Early Career (Virtual) Legal History Workshop is designed to provide support and intellectual community to early career scholars working in legal history, broadly defined. Applications are invited from early career scholars, publishing in English, who
- [Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series 2025](https://aslh.net/making-connections-new-works-in-legal-history-series-2025/) - Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series Sponsored by the American Society for Legal History Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2025 The ASLH “Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series” is intended to foster conversation and connection beyond the Annual Meeting about exciting new work in the field of legal history or likely
- [New Fellowship: ASLH Early Career Global Legal History Research Fellowships](https://aslh.net/new-fellowship-early-career-global-legal-history-research-fellowships/) - NEW! ASLH Early Career Global Legal History Research Fellowships This new initiative is intended to provide funding for early career scholars, publishing in English, who are working on projects in legal history relating to non-U. S. history topics. Non-U.S. history topics refers to research that does not qualify for the fellowships awarded by the Cromwell
- [Virtual Working Group: Roundtable on Radical Legal Advocacy (a reading, writing, and discussion group)](https://aslh.net/virtual-working-group-roundtable-on-radical-legal-advocacy-a-reading-writing-and-discussion-group/) - We are gathering a group of historians, legal scholars, and practitioners to participate in an iterative process of discussion, collaboration, and research on the topic of the history of radical legal advocacy. The ultimate goal of these meetings is some form of collective/collected writing–likely a book, although possibly a special journal issue. We hope to
- [Virtual Working Group: Consent—A Global Legal History](https://aslh.net/virtual-working-group-consent-a-global-legal-history/) - This reading group will gather to discuss the global history of consent. Its focus is on historicizing liberal notions of consent and understanding other regimes of assent and refusal in the past. We encourage applications from all scholars, including graduate students, early career scholars, and internationally based scholars. Participants’ expertise might reside in a range
- [Virtual Working Group: Environment, History and Law Global Workshop Series (reading and writing group)](https://aslh.net/virtual-working-group-environment-history-and-law-global-workshop-series-reading-and-writing-group/) - We are delighted to invite members of the ASLH community to attend the Environment, History and Law Global online workshop series. The triangle ‘environment – history – law’ suggests a wealth of opportunities for productive transdisciplinary scholarship: Historical analysis of environmental law, environmental histories of legal change, legal histories of the environment, etc. The workshop:
- [William E. Nelson](https://aslh.net/william-e-nelson/) - Bill Nelson, who died three months ago, was a pivotal and transformative figure in the growth of the field of American legal history. His scholarship included several monuments and field defining works. His mentorship was unmatched. Because of him, the Golieb Seminar at NYU Law School became a necessary way station for two generations of budding
- [Harold M. Hyman](https://aslh.net/20455-2/) - Harold M. Hyman was one of the most influential constitutional historians of his time, an honorary fellow of the American Society for Legal History and its president from 1993 to 1995. He was the author of the leading constitutional history of the Reconstruction era and, with William M. Wiecek, the standard account of constitutional transformation
- [ASLH Article Prize Winners 2025](https://aslh.net/aslh-article-prize-winners-2025/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Article Prize Aaron Hall, “Bad Roads: Building and Using a Carceral Landscape in the Plantation South,” Journal of American History 111, no. 3 (2024): 469-96. Aaron Hall’s “Bad Roads” traces the making, significance, and effects of ordinary public ways that ran through the South in the age of slavery. This important article
- [2026 Annual Meeting Call for Papers](https://aslh.net/2026-annual-meeting-call-for-papers/) - Call for Papers 2026 American Society for Legal History Annual Meeting (November 12 - 14, 2026) The Program Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the 2026 meeting to be held November 12-14 in Banff, Canada. Panels on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome.
- [ASLH Book Prize Winners - 2025](https://aslh.net/aslh-book-prize-winners-2025/) - The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award Matthew Sommer, The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China (Columbia University Press, 2024) Looking back at a lifelong engagement with Chinese legal history in the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a special focus on gender and sexuality, Matthew Sommer breaks new ground
- [Honorary Fellows 2025](https://aslh.net/honorary-fellows-2025/) - Constance Backhouse, Distinguished University Professor, University of Ottawa The Society is pleased to welcome as Honorary Fellow Constance Backhouse, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Ottawa. Professor Backhouse received her undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba before earning her first law degree at Osgoode Hall and her LL.M. at Harvard. She taught at
- [Early Career Fellowships & Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars 2025](https://aslh.net/early-career-fellowships-kathryn-t-preyer-scholars-2025/) - Early Career Global Legal History Research Fellowship Recipients Shachar Gannot, "Defending the Indefensible: Nazi Defense Attorneys in the Post-War Era," Ph.D. History candidate Princeton (expected 2028). Aden Knapp, "Judging Empires: International Court of Justice and Decolonization 1945-71," Ph.D. History, Harvard, 2023, Postdoctoral Fellow Yale University (2024-26). Stephanie Painter, "Women’s Defiance in Late Imperial
- [ASLH Dissertation Prize Winners 2025](https://aslh.net/aslh-dissertation-prize-winners-2025/) - William Nelson Cromwell Dissertation Prize Michael Borsk, “Measuring Ground: Surveyors and the Properties of States in the Great Lakes Region, 1783-1840.” (Queen's University, 2024) "Measuring Ground" is a comparative study of state formation through surveying techniques and paperwork in Upper Canada and Michigan Territory from the 1790s-1837. Borsk argues that the very processes of surveying
- [ASLH Letter regarding destruction of personnel records at Travis Air Force Base](https://aslh.net/aslh-letter-regarding-destruction-of-personnel-records-at-travis-air-force-base/) - February 28, 2025 Laurence Brewer Chief Records Office National Archives and Records Administration cc: Hannah Bergman, Acting General Counsel, NARA Dear Mr. Brewer: On behalf of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), the Society’s Committee on Documentary Preservation objects strenuously to the destruction of veterans’ Vietnam-era flight records at Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield,
- [Honorary Fellows 2024](https://aslh.net/honorary-fellows-2024/) - James R. “Jim” Phillips, Professor on the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto and Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History The Honors Committee is pleased to recommend that James R. Phillips, known universally as “Jim,” Professor on the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto and Editor-in- Chief of
- [ASLH (Virtual) Book Club: New Member Page](https://aslh.net/aslh-virtual-book-club-new-member-page/) - We now have a new members-only page through which you can access Zoom links for live book club events, as well as available recordings of earlier events.
- [Creating a successful conference panel](https://aslh.net/creating-a-successful-conference-panel/) - CREATING A SUCCESSFUL CONFERENCE PROPOSAL Barbara Y. Welke, Distinguished McKnight University Professor & Professor of History and Law, University of Minnesota and Kenneth Ledford, Associate Professor of History and Law, Case Western Reserve University 2010 ASLH Program Committee Co-Chairs Updated by Sophia Z. Lee, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania and Fahad Ahmad Bishara, Associate
- [Congratulations to the 2023 Book and Article Prize Winners!](https://aslh.net/congratulations-to-the-2023-prize-winners/) - Please join the ASLH in offering our congratulations to this year's prize winners, in thanking the prize committees for their work, and in appreciating the generosity of the people and organizations who have generously funded them. Cromwell Article Prize Emilie Connolly, "Fiduciary Colonialism: Annuities and Native Dispossession in Early America," American Historical Review 127:1 (2022):
- [R.B. (Richard) Bernstein](https://aslh.net/r-b-richard-bernstein/) - The ASLH lost a stalwart member with the passing of Richard Bernstein on June 26, 2023. More important, countless legal historians lost a friend and colleague, someone always willing to discuss legal history, to listen to a new idea, or just to talk. A constitutional historian of the founding era, Richard was a prolific scholar,
- [Natalie Zemon Davis](https://aslh.net/natalie-zemon-davis/) - Natalie Zemon Davis, “our” honorary fellow, died last week at the age of 94. She was, of course, a protean figure, among the most famous and celebrated historians of the past century. She is often identified as a founder of the modern field of cultural history and as the most distinguished practitioner of what became
- [2023 Election Results](https://aslh.net/2023-election-results/) - At the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, ASLH President Michael Willrich announced the result of the Annual Election. Please join us in congratulating these newly elected members, and thanking them for their service! President Elect: Mitra Sharafi (University of Wisconsin) Nominating Committee Member: Susanna Blumenthal (University of Minnesota) Board Members: Fahad Bishara (University of Virginia)
- [2023 Final Program](https://aslh.net/2023-final-program/) - Final Program
- [Conference Resource Team for the 2023 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference-resource-team-for-the-2023-annual-meeting/) - We seek to ensure that all participants in the ASLH annual conference conform to appropriate and approved norms of professional conduct in a context free from harassment and discrimination. We affirm our commitment to maintaining an atmosphere conducive to the collegial and open exchange of scholarly viewpoints and information. Our Resource Team is composed of
- [Laurie Marie Wood](https://aslh.net/laurie-marie-wood/) - Laurie Wood (1985-2023) was a historian of law in the French colonial world, with interests that spanned the globe in the early modern period. Dr. Wood grew up in Texas. She did her BA at Texas Tech University and her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin (2013) with advisor Dr. Julie Hardwick. She
- [Anne Fleming](https://aslh.net/anne-fleming/) - Anne C. Fleming, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, died suddenly August 25, 2020, from natural causes. Anne was an honors graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Law School. Amidst her studies, she also found time to work at the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts, the Public Defender Service for the District of
- [Robert Palmer](https://aslh.net/robert-palmer/) - Bob Palmer (1947-2023), fully deserves the recognition of a tribute in these pages. A devoted husband and father, he was also a unique and important contributor to the history of English law. Always his own man, he never followed the crowd, and we are all in his debt because of that independence of mind and
- [Craig Klafter](https://aslh.net/craig-klafter/) - In Memoriam: Craig Evan Klafter Craig Klafter was a noted legal historian, an influential member of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), a brilliant academic administrator, and a wonderful friend to many. Craig received a Bachelor of Arts with General Honors in History and Master of Arts in History from the University of Chicago,
- [David Lieberman](https://aslh.net/david-lieberman/) - David Lieberman (1953-2022) was a globally-renowned scholar, gifted teacher, model colleague, and a mentor who combined wisdom and generosity in awe-inspiring measures. David was born in Ohio, and raised in Rockville Center, New York. He finished high school in England, while his parents were there on a sabbatical leave, and then stayed to complete
- [ASLH Projects and Proposals Grant Recipient: Boston-Area Legal History Colloquium](https://aslh.net/aslh-projects-and-proposals-grant-recipient-boston-area-legal-history-colloquium/) - The Boston-Area Legal History Colloquium (BALHC) held their final meeting on April 15, 2023. The colloquium, co-sponsored by the ASLH, provides the opportunity for graduate students within the Boston area to receive feedback on works-in-progress in a collegial and professional setting, while networking with a variety students and faculty in the field. For more information
- [ASLH Virtual Book Club](https://aslh.net/aslh-virtual-book-club/) - Deadline for Applications: July 1, 2023 We are excited to announce a new virtual initiative: The ASLH Book Club, a monthly event series that will bring together ASLH members to engage virtually with authors about their recently published books. The Book Club will provide ASLH members the opportunity to gather on a regular basis throughout
- [Michael Landon](https://aslh.net/michael-landon/) - Michael deLaval Landon (1935-2021), a longtime good and faithful servant of the Society and Professor of History at the University of Mississippi, was born to Brigadier General Arthur Henry Whittington Landon, OBE, and Elizabeth Worthington Fair Landon in St. Johns, New Brunswick. Michael spent his early childhood in Canada. When his father retired to
- [2021 Annual Meeting Prize, Honors, and Fellowship Winners](https://aslh.net/2021-annual-meeting-prize-honors-and-fellowship-winners/) - The ASLH is delighted to announce our 2021 prize, honors, and fellowship winners! Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize Land-Grab Universities (https://www.landgrabu.org/) a remarkable project led by Dr. Robert Lee, Lecturer in American History and Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge University who put together an interdisciplinary team that included a journalist (Tristan Ahtone), a
- [ASLH Funded Projects, 2022](https://aslh.net/aslh-funded-projects-2022/) - The ASLH Projects and Proposals committee (chaired by Sara Mayeux, Vanderbilt) has announced support for three projects. Please join us in offering thanks to the committee members, and congratulations to the recipients. Hardeep Dhillon and Maddalena Marinari, “Illustrating Law: America’s Immigrants and the Struggle for U.S. Citizenship.” Illustrating Law proposes to create a graphic novel
- [Congratulations to our 2022 Honorary Fellows](https://aslh.net/congratulations-to-our-2022-honorary-fellows/) - This year we induct 3 new honorary members. Election as an Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Legal History is the highest honor the Society can confer. It recognizes distinguished historians whose scholarship has shaped the broad discipline of legal history and influenced the work of others. Honorary Fellows are the scholars we admire,
- [Congratulations to our 2022 Prize Winners!](https://aslh.net/congratulations-to-our-2022-prize-winners/) - The John Phillip Reid Book Award Kate Masur, Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2021). Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, Kate Masur’s Until Justice Be Done uncovers the long arc of civil rights activism in the North, showing how it arose
- [Children and the Law: A Conference in Honor of Michael Grossberg:](https://aslh.net/children-and-the-law-a-conference-in-honor-of-michael-grossberg/) - A Conference in Honor of Michael Grossberg Those attending the upcoming ASLH conference should consider attending the pre-conference, “Children and the Law: A Conference in Honor of Michael Grossberg” at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and the American Bar Foundation on November 10 from 9:30am to 6pm. We will celebrate the important contributions of former ASLH
- [ASLH and NACBS](https://aslh.net/aslh-and-nacbs/) - This year, the ASLH Annual Meeting will coincide with the meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies, who will be meeting on the same premises. In the spirit of generosity, both organizations have agreed to allow reciprocity to scholars attending the other meeting. Thus, registered attendees at the ASLH will be welcome to
- [Conference Resource Team for the Chicago 2022 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference-resource-team-for-the-chicago-2022-annual-meeting/) - At its annual meeting, the ASLH makes available a Resource Team composed of three to five members to answer questions and assist members in understanding the ASLH’s policies and procedures, including policies and procedures regarding professional conduct. The Resource Team provides informal support and works with members to ensure that their concerns are heard in
- [Court Cases and the Making of African Legal History](https://aslh.net/court-cases-and-the-making-of-african-legal-history/) - With support of the American Society for Legal History, researchers of the project 'Global Legal History on the Ground' (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory) have published a video series and a bibliography on 'Court Cases and the Writing of African History'. The videos are in Portuguese with English subtitles. Both bibliography and
- [ASLH Program 2022](https://aslh.net/aslh-program-2022/) - ASLH 2022 Annual Conference Draft Program[31]
- [Victor Tau Anzoátegui](https://aslh.net/victor-tau-anzoategui/) - Víctor Tau Anzoátegui, who died June 11, 2022, in Buenos Aires, was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 2021. This honor must have pleased Tau very much. He had spent his academic lifetime building bridges among schools, disciplines, and silos of legal history in the Spanish-speaking world and had justly garnered numerous awards
- [Sally Falk Moore](https://aslh.net/sally-falk-moore/) - By Lauren Benton The renowned legal anthropologist Sally Falk Moore died May 2, 2021, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 97. Her pathbreaking scholarship had a profound influence on generations of legal historians. Professor Moore completed her law degree at Columbia University in 1945 at the age of only 19, as one
- [ASLH joins other organizations in condemning violations of the Presidential Records Act](https://aslh.net/aslh-joins-other-organizations-in-condemning-violations-of-the-presidential-records-act/) - Read more here.
- [ASLH Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health](https://aslh.net/aslh-brief-in-dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health/) - Read the brief here.
- [John Phillip Reid](https://aslh.net/john-phillip-reid/) - We include below a remembrance in honor of John Phillip Reid, longstanding ASLH member and the first Honorary Fellow of the Society, named in 1988. It is written by John’s former student, and then long-time colleague and friend William (Bill) E. Nelson, who is himself an Honorary Fellow (2011). Hendrik Hartog, well known to legal
- [Jane Lang Scheiber](https://aslh.net/jane-lang-scheiber/) - The recent loss of Jane Scheiber has affected many ASLH members, who admired her smarts, drive, and skill as a scholar and adviser to many legal historians and our Society. We are grateful to Victoria Woeste, who in consultation with Harry Scheiber and others, has written this tribute. Jane Lang Scheiber September 3, 1937
- [Call for Papers: 2022 ASLH Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-2022-aslh-annual-meeting/) - The Program Committee of the ASLH invites proposals for complete panels and individual papers for the 2022 meeting to be held November 10-12 in Chicago. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. We encourage thematic proposals that transcend traditional periodization and geography. Limited financial assistance
- [Call for Applications: ASLH STUDENT RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM 2022](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-aslh-student-research-colloquium-2022/) - The American Society for Legal History will host the ninth annual Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, November 9, and Thursday, November 10, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. The SRC annually brings eight graduate students to the site of the ASLH annual meeting to discuss their in-progress dissertations or other research projects with each other and
- [2021 Plenary Address](https://aslh.net/2021-plenary-address/) - The plenary address at the Society's 2021 annual meeting in New Orleans was given by John Fabian Witt, Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale Law School, and entitled "Garland’s Million: The Tragedy and Triumph of Legal History." The plenary was presented at Tulane University, and the Society is deeply grateful
- [ASLH 2021 Election Results Announced](https://aslh.net/aslh-2021-election-results-announced/) - At the Saturday luncheon of the 2021 annual meeting in New Orleans, President Lauren Benton announced the results of the elections for the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee. The president-elect will serve a two-year term, members of the board of directors and nominating committees serve three-year terms. Barbara Welke, University of Minnesota, President Elect
- [New ASLH Fellowships](https://aslh.net/new-aslh-fellowships/) - On November 6, the American Society for Legal History (ASLH) announced at its 51st annual meeting the creation of new fellowships honoring distinguished scholars who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of legal history. Two fellowships are named for Stanford University Law School faculty. The Robert Gordon/Stanford Law School Fellowship and the Lawrence Friedman/Stanford
- [Kitty Preyer](https://aslh.net/kitty-preyer/) - Kathryn Conway Preyer (1924-2005), known to her many friends and admirers as “Kitty,” was among the most accomplished legal historians of her generation, as her selection in 1999 as the first woman Honorary Fellow, the ASLH’s highest honor, attests. She also had great generosity of spirit and care for early career scholars. Her critique was
- [James Willard Hurst](https://aslh.net/james-willard-hurst/) - James Willard Hurst (1910-1997) is commonly regarded as the founder and one of the great masters of the field of modern American social-legal history. Legal history as practiced and taught before Hurst in the U.S. was largely the history of English common law and famous American judges and constitutional cases. Hurst brought the spotlight down
- [Preyer Scholars](https://aslh.net/preyer-scholars/) - The ASLH is pleased to announce the 2021 Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars: Teal Arcadi (PhD candidate, History, Princeton University). Naama Maor (Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, University of Chicago). Arcadi and Maor will present their papers on the Preyer panel at the 2021 ASLH conference in New Orleans.
- [2021 Hurst Institute](https://aslh.net/2021-hurst-institute/) - The ASLH announces the early career scholars selected to participate in the 2021 J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History: Lauren Catterson (Hendrik Hartog/Princeton University Fellow), PhD candidate, University of Toronto Jon Connolly (Morton Horwitz Fellow), Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago Hardeep Dhillon (Harry Scheiber Fellow), ABF-NSF Post-Doctoral Fellow in Law and Inequality Zachary Herz (Charles McCurdy/University of Virginia Law School Fellow),
- [Call For Proposals: Wallace Johnson First Book Program](https://aslh.net/cfp-wallace-johnson-first-book-program/) - The Wallace Johnson Program for First Book Authors, sponsored by the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), is designed to provide advice and support to scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history, broadly defined. In conversation with peers and with the advice of senior scholars, participants will learn about approaching and
- [Changes to ASLH By-Laws](https://aslh.net/changes-to-aslh-by-laws/) - At the Board of Directors March 2021 Board Meeting, a number of changes were made to the Society's By-Laws in order to ensure that the By-Laws reflect changes in ASLH policies and practices. Here is a summary of the changes and their rationale: The By-Laws did not indicate whether officers can vote on matters before
- [Call for Applications: Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-student-research-colloquium/) - The American Society for Legal History will host a Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, November 20, and Thursday, November 21, 2019, immediately preceding the ASLH’s annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. The SRC annually enables eight Ph.D. students and law students to discuss their in-progress dissertations and articles with distinguished ASLH-affiliated scholars. The SRC’s target
- [Call for Proposals: ASLH-Sponsored Panels at the AHA](https://aslh.net/call-for-proposals-aslh-sponsored-panels-at-the-aha/) - Every year, the ASLH is invited to submit sponsored panel proposals for the American Historical Association's annual meeting. The AHA's next meeting, in 2022, will be held January 6-9 in New Orleans. If you would like to submit a panel for sponsorship by ASLH, please submit it by February 10 to affiliateproposals@aslh.net. If accepted, the
- [Call for Papers: ASLH 2021 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-aslh-2021-annual-meeting/) - The Program Committee of the ASLH invites proposals for complete panels and individual papers for the 2021 meeting to be held November 4-6 in New Orleans. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. We encourage thematic proposals that transcend traditional periodization and geography. Due to
- [Call for Applications: Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-student-research-colloquium-2021/) - The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) will host a Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, November 3, and Thursday, November 4, 2021, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The SRC annually brings eight graduate students to the site of the ASLH annual meeting to discuss their in-progress dissertations and articles, under the guidance of distinguished, ASLH-affiliated
- [New Program named for Rayman Solomon](https://aslh.net/new-program-named-for-rayman-solomon/) - Rutgers University has received an anonymous $3.5 million gift from a former faculty member to establish the Rayman L. Solomon Scholars Program at the Rutgers Law School in Camden. The program will assist the law school in recruiting students with demonstrated commitment to public service. Rayman Solomon is a former dean of Rutgers Law School
- [ASLH Announces New Fellowship](https://aslh.net/aslh-announces-new-fellowship/) - The ASLH has established the Herbert A. Johnson Fellowship, made possible by a generous gift from Jane and Harry Scheiber. The fellowship will be awarded to an early career scholar who works on the legal history of North America and is selected to attend the annual Student Research Colloquium. The new fellowship honors the prolific
- [2020 Annual Meeting Prize, Honors, and Fellowship Winners](https://aslh.net/2020-annual-meeting-prize-honors-and-fellowship-winners/) - The ASLH is delighted to announce our 2020 prize, honors, and fellowship winners! Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize Sean Fraga of the University of Southern California for "They Came on Waves of Ink: Pacific Northwest Maritime Trade at the Dawn of American Settlement, 1851-1861," https://seanfraga.com/wavesofink/. “They Came on Waves of Ink” makes
- [Cromwell Book Prize Winner](https://aslh.net/cromwell-book-prize-winner/) - The ASLH announces the winner of the 2020 Cromwell Book Prize: Sam Erman (University of Southern California) for his book Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire, published in the Legal History Series of Cambridge University Press. The citation reads in part: "For subtlety, nuance, and complexity of analysis by a junior scholar,
- [Zoom Links & Virtual Publisher Exhibit for 2020 Annual Conference](https://aslh.net/zoom-links-virtual-publisher-exhibit-for-2020-annual-conference/) - Zoom links and information on how to attend sessions of the 2020 ASLH annual conference are now available to ASLH members on this page. Links to specially discounted legal history offerings from several publishers are also available on the same page. The online program for the 2020 conference features a carefully curated selection of exciting
- [Call for Papers: Chicago 2020 Conference](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-chicago-2020-conference/) - The Program Committee of the ASLH invites proposals for complete panels and individual papers for the 2020 meeting to be held November 11-14 in Chicago. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. We encourage thematic proposals that transcend traditional periodization and geography. Limited financial assistance
- [Registration Open for 2020 ASLH Annual Conference](https://aslh.net/registration-open-for-2020-aslh-annual-conference/) - Dear ASLH members, We invite you to register here for the 2020 ASLH annual conference, to be held November 13-14. The online program features a carefully curated selection of exciting panels on the legal history of colonialism, slavery and abolition, immigration, and other topics. On Friday afternoon a group of editors and other experts will
- [New Timeline for Hurst Summer Institute Applications](https://aslh.net/new-timeline-for-hurst-summer-institute-applications/) - Applications for the eleventh Hurst Summer Institute will be accepted between December 1 and January 15, 2021. The 2021 Institute will take place June 13 – 26 and will be chaired by Lauren Benton, Barton M. Biggs Professor of History and Professor of Law at Yale University, and Sarah Barringer Gordon, Arlin M. Adams Professor
- [ASLH Statement on White House Conference on American History](https://aslh.net/aslh-statement-on-white-house-conference-on-american-history/) - Statement from ASLH President Lauren Benton regarding President Trump's speech at the National Archives on American history
- [New York Historical Society's Institute for Constitutional History Seminar](https://aslh.net/new-york-historical-societys-institute-for-constitutional-history-seminar/) - The Bonnie and Richard Reiss Graduate Institute for Constitutional History (ICH) seminar, which is produced twice per year, is designed for graduate students and junior faculty in history, political science, law, and related disciplines. There is no tuition or other charge for this seminar. This fall, we will be presenting the seminar virtually: Topic: "Constitutional
- [Funding Now Available from the Projects and Proposals Committee](https://aslh.net/funding-now-available-from-the-projects-and-proposals-committee/) - The ASLH welcomes applications to the Projects and Proposal Committee to fund new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical scholarship and in the communication of legal history to all its possible publics and audiences. This year's applications will be due September 14, 2020. You can find full information about the application
- [Call for Papers: 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Comparative Law](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-2020-annual-meeting-of-the-american-society-for-comparative-law/) - The ASLH invites members to consider applying to present at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law, which will take place online October 15-16, 2020. The topic of the Annual Meeting is "Comparative Legal History." Please find the call for concurrent panel proposals for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American
- [Small Grants for Digital Legal History Research](https://aslh.net/small-grants-for-digital-legal-history-research/) - In recognition of the challenges to graduate students who are conducting legal history research when travel and funding are restricted and when many archives closed, the ASLH is offering a limited number of small grants to help support remote research. The application is open to graduate students at any stage who are ASLH members. Each
- [Call for Proposals: Pre-Conference Workshops or Events](https://aslh.net/call-for-proposals-pre-conference-workshops-or-events/) - The ASLH sponsors or cosponsors a limited number of part-day or full-day workshops or events in the days before the opening of the Society’s annual conference. The Program Committee welcomes proposals for Chicago 2020, with a deadline for submission of March 27, 2020. Proposals of 1-2 pages should: explain the intellectual or professional goals of the
- [Submission Deadline Extended for Chicago 2020](https://aslh.net/submission-deadline-extended-for-chicago-2020/) - We know that many in our community are experiencing significant disruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a result, the submission deadline for the 2020 meeting of the American Society for Legal History has been extended to March 27, 2020. For information about the upcoming conference, or to submit a proposal, please click here.
- [Call for Applications: Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-student-research-colloquium-2/) - The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) will host its seventh annual Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois. The SRC annually invites eight graduate students to the site of the ASLH’s annual meeting to discuss their in-progress dissertations and articles, under the guidance of distinguished,
- [2019 Annual Meeting Recap](https://aslh.net/2019-annual-meeting-recap/) - Famously nicknamed “the hub of the solar system” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston has served over the centuries as a center of legal events and controversies that have shaped American legal history. The ASLH was delighted to return to Boston for its 2019 annual meeting, which was held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel from
- [Legal History Panels at the Upcoming AHA Conference](https://aslh.net/legal-history-panels-at-the-upcoming-aha-conference/) - The upcoming American Historical Association (AHA) annual meeting, which will take place in New York City between January 3-6, 2020 has at least 28 sessions relating to legal history of interest to ASLH members. You can see the full array of legal history-related programming at the AHA by viewing their "guide book" here--use the arrow in
- [2019 Annual Meeting Prize, Honors, and Fellowship Winners](https://aslh.net/2019-annual-meeting-prize-honors-and-fellowship-winners/) - The ASLH is delighted to announce our 2019 prize, honors, and fellowship winners! Cromwell Dissertation Prize Winner: Jonathan Lande, “Disciplining Freedom: U.S. Army Slave Rebels and Emancipation During the Civil War” At least since William Cooper Nell penned The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution in 1855, historians have linked African-American military service with manhood
- [New Talking Legal History Podcast: Will Hustwit](https://aslh.net/new-talking-legal-history-podcast-will-hustwit/) - In this episode, Siobhan talks with William P. Hustwit about his book Integration Now: Alexander v. Holmes and the End of Jim Crow Education (UNC Press, 2019). Hustwit is the Associate Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Birmingham-Southern College. Fifty years after the Supreme Court decision in Alexander v. Holmes (1969),
- [ASLH By-Laws Changes](https://aslh.net/aslh-by-laws-changes/) - The ASLH Board has voted to approve two revisions to our by-laws. First, in March and October, the by-laws were amended in Article I Section IV to explicitly describe a new membership cycle that the Society has adopted. The old membership cycle followed the calendar year, but this new membership cycle will more closely resemble
- [Call for Papers: Law and Society Annual Conference](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-law-and-society-annual-conference/) - The Law and Society Association is now accepting proposals for its upcoming annual conference, which will be held May 28-31, 2020 in Denver. Full information about the conference is available on their website.
- [Call for Applications: Harvard University Seeks Faculty](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-harvard/) - The Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University seeks to appoint up to four professors who study race, ethnicity and/or migration with focus on Asian American, Latinx, and/or Islam in America Studies. We seek candidates who work in one or more of these areas or who do comparative work across them. These positions may
- [Polls Now Open in Annual ASLH Elections](https://aslh.net/polls-now-open-in-annual-aslh-elections/) - Voting is underway in the annual ASLH elections and will continue until September 22 at 5PM EST. These elections allow members to choose their representatives for President-Elect, Board of Directors, Graduate Student representative, and Nominating Committee. Instructions about how to vote were sent to members via the email addresses on file with Cambridge University Press.
- [Call for Papers: Edited Volume on the Impact of Law’s History](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-edited-volume-on-the-impact-of-laws-history/) - Marcus Harmes of the University of Southern Queensland’s Open Access College, Jeremy Patrick of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice, and Sarah McKibbin of the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Law and Justice are developing an edited volume on legal history and seeking contributors. See the call for papers for
- [Draft Program for the 2019 Annual Meeting Now Available](https://aslh.net/draft-program-for-the-2019-annual-meeting-now-available/) - Program Committee chairs Daniel Sharfstein and Michelle McKinley have been hard at work generating the program for our upcoming 2019 annual conference, which will take place November 21-24 in Boston, Massachusetts. You can now view a draft of this program. For additional details about the 2019 annual conference, including information about registration and pre-conference workshops
- [New Talking Legal History Podcast: Hendrik Hartog](https://aslh.net/new-talking-legal-history-podcast-hendrik-hartog/) - Did you know ASLH has a podcast? It's true! Talking Legal History is hosted by Siobhan M. M. Barco, a former litigator and current doctoral student in history at Duke University, whose work focuses on the space where law, gender, and print culture intersect. In her most recent episode, she interviews Hendrik Hartog about his
- [Travel Guide for 2019 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/travel-guide-for-2019-annual-meeting/) - Greetings Legal Historians! Welcome to Boston! Famously nicknamed “the hub of the solar system” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston has served over the centuries as a center of legal events and controversies that have shaped American legal history. The 1741 Writs of Assistance case and 2003’s Goodridge v. Department of Public Health were both decided
- [New Talking Legal History Podcast: Paul Finkelman](https://aslh.net/new-talking-legal-history-podcast-paul-finkelman/) - Did you know ASLH has a podcast? It's true! Talking Legal History is hosted by Siobhan M. M. Barco, a former litigator and current doctoral student in history at Duke University, whose work focuses on the space where law, gender, and print culture intersect. In her most recent episode, she interviews Paul Finkelman, President of
- [Call for Proposals: New initiatives in Legal History](https://aslh.net/call-for-proposals-new-initiatives-in-legal-history/) - The Projects and Proposals Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the funding of new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical scholarship and in the communication of legal history to all its possible publics and audiences. It is the mission of the committee to find ways to
- [Membership and By-Laws Updates](https://aslh.net/membership-and-by-laws-updates/) - The ASLH Board and Executive Committee recently made a variety of decisions regarding membership policies and our by-laws upon recommendations made by our Membership Committee. These changes are designed to increase the Society's control over and improve members' experience with the renewal process, increase participation in our annual elections, and ensure the Law & History
- [Approaching Deadline: Cromwell Research Fellowship Applications](https://aslh.net/approaching-deadline-cromwell-research-fellowship-applications/) - In 2019, the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation will make available a number of $5,000 fellowship awards to support research and writing in American legal history by early-career scholars. Early career generally includes those researching or writing a PhD dissertation (or equivalent project) and recent recipients of a graduate degree working on their first major monograph
- [Photos from the 2018 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/photos-from-the-2018-annual-meeting/) - In 2018, the ASLH returned for the first time since 1995 to Houston, the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States. The meeting, which was held at the Hilton-Américas from November 8, 2018 to November 11, 2018, showcased a population center expected to become the nation’s third-largest city by 2025 and advanced ASLH’s
- [Call for Applications: Cromwell Research Fellowships](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-aslh-cromwell-research-fellowships/) - In 2019, the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation will make available a number of $5,000 fellowship awards to support research and writing in American legal history by early-career scholars. Early career generally includes those researching or writing a PhD dissertation (or equivalent project) and recent recipients of a graduate degree working on their first major monograph
- [Call for Nominations: Cromwell Article Prize](https://aslh.net/call-for-nominations-cromwell-article-prize/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Article prize is awarded annually for the best article in American legal history published by an early career scholar. Articles published in 2018 in the field of American legal history, broadly conceived, will be considered. There is a preference for articles in the colonial and early national periods. Articles in
- [Call for Papers: 2019 ASLH Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-at-the-2019-aslh-annual-meeting/) - The Program Committee of the ASLH invites proposals for complete panels and individual papers for the 2019 meeting to be held November 21-24 in Boston. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. We encourage thematic proposals that transcend traditional periodization and geography. Limited financial assistance
- [Call for Applications: Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-kathryn-t-preyer-scholars/) - At the annual ASLH conference, two early career legal historians designated Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars will present what would normally be their first papers to the Society. While papers simultaneously submitted to the ASLH Program committee are eligible, Preyer Scholars must present their paper as part of the Preyer panel and will be removed from
- [Call for Papers: Australian Historical Association 2019 Conference](https://aslh.net/call-for-papers-australian-historical-association/) - The Australian Historical Association invites proposals for its 2019 Conference, "Local Communities, Global Networks," which will take place July 8-12, 2019 at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. In particular, the program committee is interested in proposals that address the following questions: How have the local and the global intersected, inspired and transformed experiences within
- [Call for Applications: Law and Society Association 2019 Junior Scholars Workshop](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-law-and-society-association-2019-junior-scholars-workshop/) - The Law and Society Association is pleased to accept applications for the 2019 Junior Scholar Workshop. The workshop will begin mid-day on Tuesday, May 28, and continue through the day on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. The workshop immediately precedes the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association in Washington DC. We invite applications
- [Call For Papers: "Many 14th Amendments" Conference](https://aslh.net/cfp-many-14th-amendments-conference/) - The University of Miami will be hosting a wide-ranging symposium entitled “The Many Fourteenth Amendments” to mark the sesquicentennial. The symposium will be held on March 1-3, 2018 in Miami (Coral Gables more specifically). The announcement with more details may be found here. Paper proposals are currently being solicited and the deadline is September 15.
- [Call For Papers: ESCLH Conference, June 28-20, 2018](https://aslh.net/cfp-esclh-conference-june-2018/) - Laws Across Codes and Laws Decoded 28 June – 30 June 2018 at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris) The Organising Committee of the 5th Biennal Conference and the Executive Council of the European Society for Comparative Legal History are pleased to call for papers for the upcoming conference to be held. The main theme picks
- [Call For Papers: Legal and Institutional Translation Policies](https://aslh.net/cfp-legal-and-institutional-translation-policies/) - Leuven University (Belgium) is organizing a conference on the use of translation in public legal and administrative institutions, in the past and present. They would like to attract researchers from a variety of fields, including legal history, and are encouraging legal historians to consider applying to participate. The deadline for abstracts is February 1 2018.
- [ASLH Election Closes September 22, 2018](https://aslh.net/aslh-election-closes-september-22/) - A reminder to all members: the ASLH election will end at 11:59 PM, September 22, 2018. ASLH members should have received an email asking them to vote (each email contained a voting token which is individualized). Please follow the email instructions and cast your ballot before the deadline.
- [Conference on Legal History of the European Union, June 21-22, 2018](https://aslh.net/conference-june-2018-on-key-biographies-in-legal-history-european-union/) - The annual conference of the research field “Legal History of the European Union” will take place at the Frankfurt Max Planck Institute for European Legal History on June 21-22, 2018. The particular focus of this year's meeting will be “Key Biographies in the Legal History of European Union, 1950-1993.” The conference programme (including an outline
- [Institute for Constitutional History Seminar on William Howard Taft and Charles Evans Hughes](https://aslh.net/william-howard-taft-and-charles-evans-hughes-the-travails-and-contradictions-of-progressivism-within-the-law-1908-1941/) - The Institute for Constitutional History is pleased to announce another seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty: William Howard Taft and Charles Evans Hughes; the Travails and Contradictions of Progressivism within the Law: 1908-1941 Instructors: Daniel R. Ernst is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught since 1988. He is
- [Pre-Conference Workshop on Medieval Legal History, November 8, 2018](https://aslh.net/pre-conference-workshop-on-medieval-legal-history-thursday-november-8th-2018/) - On Thursday November 8, immediately before the main conference begins, the American Society for Legal History (with the support of Vanderbilt University) is hosting a workshop on medieval legal history, broadly defined both chronologically and geographically. The workshop will consist of a range of paper presentations and discussions, as shown on the program below. Lunch
- [Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History, October 26, 2018](https://aslh.net/symposium-on-comparative-early-modern-legal-history-chicago-oct-26-2018/) - Arguing for the Rule of Law: Using the Hebrew Bible and Caricatures of Foreigners in British and Spanish America Date: Friday, October 26, 2018 Location: Newberry Library, Chicago Organized by: Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (University of Texas, Austin) and Richard Ross (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) How did settlers, imperial officials, indigenous peoples, and Africans in the New
- [2015 Conference Summary](https://aslh.net/2015-conference-summary/) - The ASLH returned to Washington, DC for its 2015 annual meeting, Thursday, October 29, 2015 to Sunday, Nov 1, 2015. The meeting hotel was the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. The program for the meeting was created by the Program Committee, led by co-chairs, Martha Jones (University of Michigan) and Charlotte Walker-Said (CUNY-John Jay
- [2014 Conference Summary](https://aslh.net/2014-conference-summary/) - Denver, November 6-9, 2014 The Society held its annual meeting in the majestic Rocky Mountain state for the first time. The program for the meeting is available here:. As one member put it: “We move from sea-level Miami to the Mile High City.” The conference hotel was the Four Seasons Denver. The hotel
- [Awards for 2013](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2013/) - At the 2013 Annual Meeting, the president announced the following prizes and awards: Sir John Baker (University of Cambridge) received the Sutherland Prize for “Deeds Speak Louder than Words: Covenants and the Law of Proof, 1290-1321,” published in Susanne Kenks et al., eds., Laws, Lawyers, and Texts: Studies in Medieval Legal History in Honour of
- [Awards for 2012](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2012/) - At the 2012 annual meeting, the president announced the following awards: Rebecca Scott (University of Michigan) had been awarded the Surrency Prize; James Oldham (Georgetown University), the Sutherland Prize; Daniel J. Sharfstein (Vanderbilt University), the Cromwell Book Prize; Laura M. Weinrib (Princeton University), the Cromwell Dissertation Prize; David Freeman Engstrom (Stanford University), the Cromwell Article Prize; and Tomiko Brown-Nagin (Harvard
- [Awards for 2011](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2011/) - New for 2011: The Society announces a competition for two Paul L. Murphy Awards. See below for details. Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded
- [Awards for 2010](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2010-2011/) - Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous
- [Awards for 2009](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2009/) - New for 2009: The Society announces the first competition for the Cromwell Article Prize. See below for details. Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded
- [Awards for 2008](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2008/) - Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous
- [Awards for 2007](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2007/) - Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous
- [Awards for 2006](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2006/) - Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous
- [Awards for 2005](https://aslh.net/awards-for-2005/) - New for 2005: The Society announces the first of competition for Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars and for the John Philip Reid Book Award. See below for details. Surrency Prize The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its
- [Katheryn T. Preyer Scholars competition open](https://aslh.net/katheryn-t-preyer-scholars-competition-open/) - Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars will receive a $500 cash award and reimbursement of expenses up to $750 for travel, hotels, and meals. Each will present the paper that s/he submitted to the competition at the Society’s annual meeting. More details about the competition and how to submit materials for consideration may be found here: .
- [Fellowship Competition for Humanities Research in Egypt](https://aslh.net/fellowship-competition-for-humanities-research-in-egypt/) - The American Research Center in Egypt will be announcing its annual fellowship competition on November 1. Its fellowships are open to humanities and social science scholars for research in Egypt on a diverse array of disciplines spanning all periods of Egypt's history. ARCE invites applications to conduct independent humanities research during the 2019-2020 academic year in Egypt.
- [2018 ASLH Annual Meeting Preliminary Draft Program Now Available](https://aslh.net/2018-aslh-annual-meeting-preliminary-draft-program-now-available/) - The American Society for Legal History will be having its 48th annual meeting in Houston, Texas from November 8 -11, 2018. The preliminary draft program is now available at 2018 ASLH Annual Meeting Program (Draft).
- [ACLS Digital Extension Grant Program](https://aslh.net/acls-digital-extension-grant-program/) - The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded ACLS a grant of $3 million in renewed support of the ACLS Digital Extension Grant program. The Foundation’s award enables ACLS to offer three additional annual competitions for the grants. Launched in 2015, the Digital Extension Grant program supports digitally-based research in all disciplines of the humanities and related
- [Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Program](https://aslh.net/mellon-acls-scholars-society-program/) - The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is now accepting applications for the new Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society program, which offers opportunities for faculty who teach and advise doctoral students to pursue humanities scholarship beyond the academy and to deepen their support for doctoral curricular innovation on their campuses. The Scholars & Society program supports tenured
- [Pre-conference Workshop on Teaching Legal History](https://aslh.net/pre-conference-workshop-on-teaching-legal-history/) - We invite 30 ASLH attendees to register for our pre-conference workshop on teaching legal history from 11-4 on Thursday, November 8 in the conference hotel. Participants will have an opportunity to share their own challenges and successes in dialogue with workshop facilitators on topics ranging from digital and creative pedagogies, to co-convened JD/graduate seminars, and
- [Call for Applications: Hurst Institute, June 2019](https://aslh.net/call-for-applications-hurst-institute-june-2019/) - Call for Applications Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History: June 9-22, 2019 University of Wisconsin–Madison Application Deadline: December 3, 2018 The American Society for Legal History and the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin Law School are pleased to invite applications for the tenth biennial Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History. The
- [Johnson Program for First Book Authors](https://aslh.net/2707-2/) - Johnson Program for First Book Authors Sponsored by the American Society for Legal History Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2018 The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) announces a new program designed to provide advice and support to scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history, broadly defined. In conversation with peers
- [ASLH Elections Underway Now](https://aslh.net/aslh-elections-underway-now/) - ASLH Elections are underway now through September 22. If you are a member of the society, you should receive today or tomorrow (August 21 or 22) a ballot for the election from VoteNow, the organization that conducts our elections. If you have not received it, please check your spam folder first. If your ballot is
- [Membership Renewal and Voting in the ASLH Election](https://aslh.net/membership-renewal-and-voting-in-the-aslh-election/) - On behalf of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), we invite all legal historians, practitioners, graduate and law students, and interested parties to join the ASLH or renew their memberships. The American Society for Legal History is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to fostering scholarship, teaching, and study concerning the law and institutions of
- [Announcing the Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Fellowships](https://aslh.net/announcing-the-mellon-acls-scholars-society-fellowships/) - The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), of which the ASLH is a member, is pleased to announce a new initiative to advance publicly engaged scholarship in the humanities. The Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will support humanities scholars who seek to partner with nonacademic organizations
- [Projects and Proposals invites submissions](https://aslh.net/projects-and-proposals-invites-submissions/) - The Projects and Proposals Committee of the American Society for Legal History exists to encourage new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical scholarship and in the communication of legal history to all its possible publics and audiences. We would consider subventions of scholarly publications or of museum exhibits or pedagogical experiments
- [Extended deadline for Cromwell Dissertation Prize](https://aslh.net/extended-deadline-for-cromwell-dissertation-prize/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation has generously funded a dissertation prize of $5,000. The winning dissertation may focus on any area of American legal history, including constitutional and comparative studies; topics dealing with the colonial and early national periods will receive some preference. Anyone who received a Ph.D. in 2017 will be eligible for this
- [Revisions to Society By-Laws](https://aslh.net/revisions-to-society-by-laws/) - At a meeting held on Sunday March 25, 2018, the Board of Directors voted to make changes in the Society by-laws. The main changes adopted alter the length of committee service for Hurst Institute and Finance committee members (Article II, sections 7a and 9) and list the monograph series Studies in Legal History as an
- [Post-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University](https://aslh.net/post-doctoral-fellowship-at-northwestern-university/) - Northwestern University’s Center for Legal Studies invites applications from outstanding candidates for a full-time, two-year, non-renewable teaching and research post-doctoral fellowship beginning fall 2018. The purpose of the fellowship is to recognize and support original interdisciplinary research and teaching in the study of law and inequality in race, crime, policing, mass incarceration, civil rights, and
- [ASLH Annual Meeting Call for Proposals](https://aslh.net/aslh-annual-meeting-call-for-proposals/) - The American Society for Legal History will be having its 48th annual meeting in Houston, Texas from November 8 -11, 2018. The Program Committee invites proposals for complete panels and individual papers. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. Panel proposals should include the following:
- [Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program – 2018 Fellowship Competition](https://aslh.net/mellon-acls-public-fellows-program-2018-fellowship-competition/) - The American Council of Learned Societies ("ACLS") is pleased to announce the eighth annual competition of the Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows Program. This initiative places humanities PhDs in substantive roles in diverse nonprofit and government organizations, demonstrating that the knowledge and capacities developed in the course of earning a doctoral degree in the humanities have wide
- [Call for Participants: 2018 Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/call-for-participants-2018-student-research-colloquium/) - The American Society for Legal History will host a Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, Nov. 7, and Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, immediately preceding the ASLH’s annual meeting in Houston, Texas. The SRC annually enables eight Ph.D. students and law students to discuss their in-progress dissertations and articles with distinguished ASLH-affiliated scholars. This year, the
- [Call for Submissions: Peter Gonville Stein book prize](https://aslh.net/call-for-submissions-peter-gonville-stein-book-prize/) - The American Society for Legal History announces the Peter Gonville Stein Book Award, to be presented annually for the best book in legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all non-US regions, as well as global and
- [ASLH Election Results Announced](https://aslh.net/aslh-election-results-announced/) - At the Saturday luncheon of the 2016 annual meeting in Toronto, President Rebecca Scott announced the results of the elections for the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee. The following members stand elected to the Board, where they will serve three-year terms: Alexandra Havrylyshyn (graduate student representative), University of California, Berkeley Angela Fernandez, University of
- [2017 ACLS Fellowship Recipients from the American Society for Legal History](https://aslh.net/2017-acls-fellowship-recipients-from-the-american-society-for-legal-history/) - We are very pleased to announce the 2017 cohort of ACLS fellowship recipients from among the members of the ASLH. Chazkel, Amy - ACLS Fellowship Program Associate Professor, History, City University of New York, Queens College Urban Chiaroscuro: Rio de Janeiro and the Politics of Nightfall Gross, Ariela J. - ACLS Collaborative Research
- [Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars: Call for Papers, 2017](https://aslh.net/kathryn-t-preyer-scholars-call-for-papers-2017/) - Named after the late Kathryn T. Preyer, a distinguished historian of the law of early America known for her generosity to young legal historians, the program of Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars is designed to help legal historians at the beginning of their careers. At the annual meeting of the Society two early career legal historians
- [Student Research Colloquium announced](https://aslh.net/student-research-colloquium-announced/) - The American Society for Legal History will host a Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, October 25, and Thursday, October 26, 2017, immediately preceding the ASLH’s annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The SRC enables a small number of Ph.D. students and law students to discuss their in-progress dissertations and law review articles with distinguished
- [Shortlist for the Langum Prize in American Legal History and Biography Announced](https://aslh.net/shortlist-for-the-langum-prize-in-american-legal-history-and-biography-announced/) - The shortlisted books are: Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States, by Edward B. Foley (Oxford University Press). Discrediting the Red Scare: The Cold War Trials of James Kutcher, “The Legless Veteran,” by Robert Justin Goldstein (University Press of Kansas). The Great Yazoo Lands Sale: The Case of Fletcher v. Peck,
- [Fellowship Opportunity, Stanford Center for Law and History](https://aslh.net/fellowship-opportunity-stanford-center-for-law-and-history/) - This fellowship is intended for people who have completed (or will soon complete) their training in law and history and who seek to pursue an academic career at the intersection of the two fields. The Stanford Center for Law and History fellowship is a residential fellowship that provides an opportunity to conduct research in the
- [NEH Public Scholars Program](https://aslh.net/neh-public-scholars-program/) - The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites applications for the 2017 round of the Public Scholar Program, which is intended to support well-researched books in the humanities that have been conceived and written to reach a broad readership. Books supported through the Public Scholar Program might present a narrative history, tell the stories of
- [Schwarzman Scholars Program - Visiting Faculty Positions](https://aslh.net/schwarzman-scholars-program-visiting-faculty-positions/) - The Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University in Beijing seeks to recruit Visiting Faculty from the world’s leading universities and institutions for the 2017-18 academic year. These international scholars and practitioners will engage a highly motivated cohort of future leaders through Schwarzman Scholars’ unique, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on contemporary global issues. Visiting Faculty also have
- [ASLH Announces New Book Prize: Peter Gonville Stein Book Award](https://aslh.net/aslh-announces-new-book-prize-peter-gonville-stein-book-award/) - The American Society for Legal History announces the Peter Gonville Stein Book Award, to be presented annually for the best book in legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all non-US regions, as well as global and
- [ACLS Digital Extension Grants: Deadline January 25, 2017](https://aslh.net/acls-digital-extension-grants-deadline-january-25-2017/) - The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to invite applications for the 2016-17 ACLS Digital Extension Grant competition, which is made possible by the generous assistance of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is hoped that these grants will help advance humanistic scholarship by enhancing established digital research projects and extending their reach to new communities
- [University of Adelaide Legal History PhD Scholarships](https://aslh.net/university-of-adelaide-legal-history-phd-scholarships/) - The University of Adelaide has announced two PhD scholarships in legal history. The Judges and English Law Scholarship supports the pursuit of a PhD in the School of Humanities (History), and is open to citizens or permanent residents of Australia, or citizens of New Zealand. For further details, see the scholarship announcement. The Early Modern
- [J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History](https://aslh.net/j-willard-hurst-summer-institute-in-legal-history/) - Call for Applications Application Deadline: December 1, 2016 The American Society for Legal History and the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin Law School are pleased to invite applications for the ninth biennial Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History. The purpose of the Hurst Institute is to advance the approach to legal

## Pages

- [Front Page](https://aslh.net/) - The American Society for Legal History was founded in 1956 to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching in the broad field of legal history. The Society holds its Annual Meeting each fall. The meeting is an opportunity for historians, law professors, graduate students, lawyers, and judges from around the world to gather and meet fellow travelers and to present and discuss their scholarship.
- [Personal Histories](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/personal-histories/) - Interviewee CV/Bio Interviewer Date Video/Audio Transcript Craig Joyce Bio Charles Zelden July 24, 2020 Craig Joyce Transcript Morris S. (Buzz) Arnold Bio Polly J. Price August 4, 2014 Audio Track 1Audio Track 2 Arnold Transcript Constance Backhouse Bio Craig E. Klafter January 18, 2015 Backhouse Transcript Barbara Aronstein Black Bio Maeva Marcus October 24,
- [Current Officers, Directors & Committees](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/current-officers-directors-and-committees/) - The dates in parentheses after each name indicate when the person’s term began. Members of the Board of Directors serve for terms of three years. Lists of officers, directors, and committee members for previous years may be found here. PRINCIPAL OFFICERS President: Mitra Sharafi, University of Wisconsin President-Elect: Michelle McKinley, University of Oregon Secretary: Emily
- [Virtual Working Groups, 2026-2027](https://aslh.net/virtual-working-groups/) - ASLH Themed Virtual Legal History Workshop Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026 The ASLH invites applications for Themed Virtual Legal History Workshops. The goal of the Themed Virtual LHWs is to provide a space for scholars with common interests to discuss or present innovative work in their fields, and cultivate relationships. Every year the Annual
- [Making Connections: New Works in Legal History, 2026-27](https://aslh.net/virtual-book-club/) - Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series Sponsored by the American Society for Legal History Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026 The ASLH Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series aims to foster conversations and connections beyond the Annual Meeting about exciting new work in the field of legal history or publications likely
- [ASLH Public Statements](https://aslh.net/aslh-public-statements/) - In 2024, President Barbara Welke convened an ad hoc committee to offer guidelines for issuing or joining statements. The committee recommended criteria and processes, and the policy was approved with amendments by the Board in November 2024. These criteria and processes are now posted on the ASLH website, and the President presented them to the
- [By-Laws](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/by-laws/) - American Society for Legal History, By Laws Article I Members Upon application and payment of annual dues any individual interested in legal history may be a member. A member is entitled to receive all publications as provided by the directors and officers and to attend any general meetings. An individual member, but not an institutional
- [ASLH Book Club - Members Page](https://aslh.net/aslh-book-club-members-page/) - Welcome to the ASLH Members Page for our series, Making Connections! You may use this page to find recordings of previous events. Each link is pasted beneath the relevant entry on the schedule. Please feel free to view the videos and to use them for acceptable educational purposes. They remain the intellectual property of
- [Past Officers, Directors & Committees](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/current-officers-directors-and-committees/past-officers-directors-and-committees/) - The dates in parentheses after each name indicate when the person’s term began. Scroll to:, 2025, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 2025 PRINCIPAL OFFICERS President: Barbara Welke, University of Minnesota President-Elect: Mitra Sharafi, University of Wisconsin Secretary: Ari Bryen, Vanderbilt University
- [Professional Conduct at ASLH Events](https://aslh.net/professional-conduct-at-aslh-events/) - ASLH Code of Professional Conduct and Policies and Procedures for Reporting Alleged Violations The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) seeks to ensure that all participants in ASLH activities conform to appropriate and approved norms of professional conduct in a context free from harassment and discrimination. We affirm our commitment to maintaining an atmosphere conducive
- [Talking Legal History](https://aslh.net/talking-legal-history/) - Talking Legal History is a podcast hosted by Siobhan M. M. Barco, a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, whose work focuses on the space where law, gender, and print culture intersect.
- [Contact Us](https://aslh.net/contact-us/) - Chair of our Membership Committee If you have any questions regarding membership or the benefits of membership, including access to the Law and History Review, contact the chair of our membership committee: Professor Holly Brewer Chair, Membership Committee American Society for Legal History Secretary If you have questions about the website, the email list,
- [About ASLH](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/) - The American Society for Legal History was founded in 1956 to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching in the broad field of legal history. Although based in the United States, its purview and membership are international in scope. The Society sponsors a quarterly journal, Law and History Review, and a book series, Studies in Legal History, both of
- [Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/early-career-scholars/student-research-colloquium/) - ASLH STUDENT RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM, 2026 Call for Applications The American Society for Legal History will host its thirteenth annual Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, November 11, and Thursday, November 12, 2026, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Each year, the SRC brings eight graduate students to the site of the ASLH annual meeting to discuss their
- [Donate](https://aslh.net/donate/) - The ASLH is dedicated to enriching and expanding the field of legal history across time, around the world, and with a variety of methods. We accomplish this critical task in many different ways. The most important is our Annual Meeting, where scholars from around the world meet to exchange ideas and socialize. To insure diversity,
- [ASLH Annual Meeting FAQs](https://aslh.net/aslh-annual-meeting-faqs/) - FAQs about the ASLH Annual Meeting How do we pick sites for our meetings? Members of the Standing Committee on the Annual Meeting discuss possible cities that would be relatively easy to travel to, that would bring the meeting to different parts of the country, and that have institutions that might be willing to sponsor
- [Event Registrations](https://aslh.net/event-registrations/)
- [Early-Career Scholars](https://aslh.net/early-career-scholars/) - Supporting early-career scholars is among the American Society for Legal History’s top priorities. Well aware that today’s newcomers will be tomorrow’s leaders within the profession, the ASLH works hard to attract, retain, mentor, and otherwise serve graduate students, law students, and early-career professionals. We also recognize that junior scholars often have limited resources, and thus
- [We'll be right back](https://aslh.net/well-be-right-back/) - The store and membership system are currently undergoing maintenance. We'll be back shortly. Thanks for your patience.
- [Governance](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/governance/) - Year President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Board of Directors Nominating Committee 1956 Erwin C. Surrency (Temple University) William F. Schultz, Jr. (University of Pittsburgh) William F. Schultz, Jr. (University of Pittsburgh) 1957 Erwin C. Surrency (Temple University) William F. Schultz, Jr. (University of Pittsburgh) William F. Schultz, Jr. (University of Pittsburgh) 1958 Erwin C. Surrency
- [Other Committees](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/other-committees/) - Year Documentary Preservation Publications Research Fellowships and Awards Ad Hoc Committees 1956 1957 1958 William H. McBratney, Chair, Louis H. Samuels, Paul Treschner Morris D. Forkosch, Chair, John C. Hogan, William Tinker 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 John D. Cushing, Chair 1969 John D. Cushing, Chair 1970 1971 Richard B.
- [Meetings Committees](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/meetings-committees/) - Year Conferences & Annual Meeting Local Arrangements Program for Annual Meeting 1971 Robert M. Spector, Chair (State College at Worcester), Sanford J. Fox (Boston College) Herbert A. Johnson, Chair (Institute of Early American History & Culture), Milton M. Klein, Vice Chair (University of Tennessee), Gaines Post (Princeton University), Charles M. Gray (University of Chicago), John
- [Honors and Awards Committees II](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/honors-and-awards-committees-ii/) - Year Advisory Committee on the Cromwell Prizes John Philip Reid Book Award Committee Willard Hurst Memorial Fund Committee Kathryn T. Preyer Memorial Committee Craig Joyce Prize Committee 2004 Book Prize Awarded to Michael Willrich (Bradeis University); Committee - David Konig, Chair (Washington University in St. Louis, 2004), Barbara A. Black (Columbia University, 2004), Charles McCurdy
- [Honors and Awards Committees I](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/honors-and-awards-committees-i/) - Year Committee on Honors (Established 1971) Surrency Prize Committee (Established 1983) Sutherland Prize Committee (Established 1988) Paul L. Murphy Award Committee (Established 1998) 1971 Herbert A. Johnson, Chair (Institute of Early American History & Culture), Paul A. Freund (Harvard University), Hugh B. Cox (Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C.) 1972 Covey T. Oliver, Chair, Hugh B.
- [Administrative Committees](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/administrative-committees/) - Year Finance Future of the Society Membership Projects and Proposals 1956 1957 1958 William Tucker Dean, Chair, Joseph A. McCallin, Joseph H. Smith, Thad Holt, Jr., W.L. Guice, B.G. Ramsey 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 Joseph W. McKnight, Chair 1969 Joseph W. McKnight, Chair 1970 1971 Milton M. Klein, Chair
- [Congratulations to our 2023 Honorary Fellows!](https://aslh.net/news/congratulations-to-our-2023-honorary-fellows/) - This year we induct 3 new honorary fellows. Election as an Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Legal History is the highest honor the Society can confer. It recognizes distinguished historians whose scholarship has shaped the broad discipline of legal history and influenced the work of others. Honorary Fellows are the scholars we admire,
- [2023 ASLH Election](https://aslh.net/2023-aslh-election/) - ASLH 2023 Election: President Elect, Nominating Committee, and Board of Directors Candidate Statements President-Elect Mitra Sharafi: I am a legal historian of South Asia and Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law and Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with History affiliation. My first book, Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947 appeared in the ASLH’s
- [Annual Meetings](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/annual-meetings/) - Date Location Hotel November 8-11, 2018 Houston, TX Hilton-Americas Hotel October 26-29, 2017 Las Vegas, NV Red Rock Resort October 27-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada The Royal York Hotel October 29-31, 2015 Washington, D.C. Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill November 6-9, 2014 Denver, CO Four Seasons Denver November 7-10, 2013 Miami, FL Hyatt Regency Miami November 8-11,
- [Citation Forms](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/citation-form/) - Bluebook Legal Historian 1 THE LEGAL HISTORIAN page # (1958) available at https://aslh.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Legal-Historian-No-1-SMU.pdf. Newsletter ASLH NEWSLETTER, Sept. 1987, at page # (Am. Soc’y of Legal History, New York, N.Y. available at https://aslh.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ASLH-Newsletter-vol-18-no-1-September-87-SMU.pdf. Annual Meeting Program ASLH 1ST ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM, Oct. 1971 at page # (Am. Soc’y of Legal History, New York, N.Y.) available at
- [Documents](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/documents/) - Year Annual Meeting Programs Newsletters Miscellaneous 1956 1957 1958 The Legal Historian, No 1 [SMU] 1959 The Legal Historian, No 2 [SMU] 1960 The Legal Historian, No 3 [SMU], The Legal Historian, No 3 [SMU], Middle Atlantic States Conference Program [SMU], Northeastern States Conference Program [SMU], Pacific Coast Conference Program [SMU], Southern Branch Conference Program
- [Fellows and Special Appointments](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/fellows-and-special-appointments/) - Year Honorary Fellows+ Corresponding Fellows Delegate to American Council of Learned Societies Appointees on Committee on the Littleton-Griswold Fund of American Historical Association 1971 1972 1973 1974 John P. Dawson (Harvard University), Charles Fairman (Harvard University), Gaines Post (Princeton University), A. Arthur Schiller (Columbia University), Samuel E. Thorne (Harvard University) Francois Dumont (University of Paris),
- [Account Login](https://aslh.net/login/) - Log in to view and update your account The Member Portal gives you access to your membership information, renewals, the latest member news, and open calls for papers. You can RENEW NOW using your existing email address. Questions about how to access your membership account or renew your account should be sent to Chair of
- [Membership Information](https://aslh.net/membership-information/) - Members receive the following benefits Subscription to print and online editions of Law and History Review, America's leading legal history journal Access to back issues of Law and History Review online through Cambridge Journals Online A 30% discount off the regular price of books in the Studies in Legal History series. In Addition Members are eligible to
- [Communication preferences](https://aslh.net/communication-preferences/) - [automatewoo_communication_preferences]
- [Creating a Successful Conference Proposal](https://aslh.net/creating-a-successful-conference-proposal/) - Barbara Y. Welke, Distinguished McKnight University Professor & Professor of History and Law, University of Minnesota and Kenneth Ledford, Associate Professor of History and Law, Case Western Reserve University 2010 ASLH Program Committee Co-Chairs Updated by Sophia Z. Lee, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania and Fahad Ahmad Bishara, Associate Professor of History, University of
- [About Our Editors](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/about-the-book-series/about-our-editors/) - Reuel Schiller is The Honorable Roger J. Traynor Chair and Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he teaches American legal history, administrative law, and labor and employment law. He has written extensively about the legal history of the American administrative state, and the historical development of labor law and
- [2021 Honorary Fellows](https://aslh.net/2021-honorary-fellows/) - The Society was delighted to elect three new Honorary Fellows on November 6, 2021. They are Shaunnagh Dorsett, Distinguished Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney, and Faculty Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington; Víctor Tau Anzoátegui, former Titular Regular Professor of the History of Argentine Law
- [In Memoriam](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/in-memoriam/) - Your Memorialists are pleased to inaugurate this memorial page. We begin with remembrances of two great legal historians, Kitty Preyer and Willard Hurst, whose contributions to the field have been lasting and whose dedication has set a high bar for the field. In each case, important ASLH programs are named are named in their honor,
- [History of the Society](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society/) - The History of the Society Project (HSP) seeks to preserve and provide access to information concerning the history and development of the American Society for Legal History. The resources housed at the site include historical lists of officers, board and committee members, as well as documents generated by the ASLH, and personal histories (accessible via
- [2020 Honorary Fellows](https://aslh.net/2020-honorary-fellows/) - The Society was delighted to induct Paul Brand, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita at the Institute for Advanced Study, and Robert W. Gordon, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School as honorary fellows on November 14, 2020. Read more about their contributions to the field of legal history
- [2020 Virtual Conference Information](https://aslh.net/virtual-conference-info/) - ZOOM WEBINAR LINKS Friday, November 13, 2020 10:30-12:00: Panel 1 – The Everyday Materials of Colonial Legal Spaces Zoom: Please click this URL to join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device: https://yale.zoom.us/j/99751782389 To join by phone, dial: US: +1 203 4329666 or 888 788 0099 (Toll Free) or 877 853
- [Recent Publications](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/recent-publications/)
- [Diversity and Inclusion Statement](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/diversity-and-inclusion-statement/) - The American Society for Legal History fosters open, critical exchanges to advance legal history scholarship in all its variety. Consistent with our scholarly mission, we prize diversity in all aspects of our programming, conferences, publications, and fellowships. The Society welcomes membership and participation regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, appearance,
- [Past Conferences](https://aslh.net/past-conferences-content/) - ASLH Annual Meetings Since 1971, ASLH has held an Annual Meeting to bring members together for talks, dialogue, and presentation of awards. As an international society, ASLH likes to rotate the location of Annual Meeting sites around North America, and has held these conferences in cities all over the United States as well as Canada.
- [Publication Access and Discounts for Members](https://aslh.net/member-benefits/) - Law and History Review Online Access Click here for Access Studies in Legal History Discounts 30% Off: PeerReviewer30
- [Content restricted](https://aslh.net/content-restricted/) - [wcm_content_restricted]
- [Awards](https://aslh.net/awards/) - Programs, grants, prizes, and fellowships The American Society for Legal History sponsors a number of programs, grants, prizes, and fellowships which benefit our members. We support programs that – in addition to welcoming new participants to our annual meetings — create smaller and more focused venues where junior scholars may develop their skills, seek opportunities
- [Hurst Summer Institute Pledge](https://aslh.net/hurst-pledge/) - The ASLH is committed to securing the future of the Hurst Summer Institute. We welcome your contribution in any amount and thank you for being part of this effort. While we have initially raised funds to honor leading mentors in the field, we urge you to make any suggestions of those you might like to
- [Shop](https://aslh.net/shop/)
- [Member Portal](https://aslh.net/member-portal/)
- [History of the Society Project](https://aslh.net/history-of-the-society-project/) - The History of The Society Project seeks to preserve and provide access information about the history and development of the American Society for Legal History. The resources housed on the History of The Society Project site include historical lists of officers, board and committee members, as well as documents generated by the ASLH, and new
- [2019 Dudziak Prize Nominations](https://aslh.net/2019-dudziak-prize-nominations/) - [wpabstracts event_id=1]
- [About Our Logo](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/about-the-book-series/about-our-logo/) - The book series logo differs from the overall ASLH logo; it represents the Ankerwycke Yew, or the Tree of Liberty, at Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed in June 1215. The Magna Carta (Great Charter) was signed by King John of England in order to restore peace with the nobles rebelling against his rule.
- [Guidelines for Prospective Authors](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/guidelines-for-prospective-authors/) - From the Editors of Studies in Legal History (Holly Brewer, Sally Gordon, Michael Lobban, & Reuel Schiller) Our Standards and Policies as Editors Studies in Legal History (SLH) is well known for its editors’ deep engagement in their work. We are active and constructive partners with both experienced authors and first-time authors transforming their dissertation into
- [Latest News](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/latest-news/)
- [Video Series](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/video-series/)
- [Our Collection Search Results](https://aslh.net/our-collection-search-results/)
- [Our Collection](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/our-collection/) - This series aims to publish the highest quality work in legal history by both junior and senior scholars. Our goal is to produce monographs that take a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, but always with respect for historical and legal change. The series is dedicated to the understanding of law as both a product
- [Upcoming Publications](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/upcoming-publications/) - This series aims to publish the highest quality work in legal history by both junior and senior scholars. Our goal is to produce monographs that take a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, but always with respect for historical and legal change. The series is dedicated to the understanding of law as both a product
- [Studies in Legal History](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/) - This series aims to publish the highest quality work in legal history by both junior and senior scholars. Our goal is to produce monographs that take a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, but always with respect for historical and legal change. The series is dedicated to the understanding of law as both a product
- [About the Book Series](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/about-the-book-series/) - This series aims to publish the highest quality work in legal history by both junior and senior scholars. Our goal is to produce monographs that take a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, but always with respect for historical and legal change. The series is dedicated to the understanding of law as both a product
- [About Our Authors](https://aslh.net/studies-in-legal-history/about-the-book-series/about-our-authors/) - Maria Agren is Professor of History at Uppsala University where she specializes in the Early Modern period, particularly in Sweden. She is the author of Domestic Secrets: Women and property in Sweden, 1600 to 1857 (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) and editor of the forthcoming Making a Living, Making a Difference: Gender and Work
- [Resources for Doing Legal History](https://aslh.net/resources-for-doing-legal-history/) - There is an enormous and growing number of digital resources that support research and teaching in legal history. We welcome suggestions for links to include at this page. To recommend a resource or to report a broken link, please contact us.
- [Resources for Doing Legal History Legacy](https://aslh.net/resources-for-doing-legal-history-legacy/) - Our sister organizations in the United Kingdom are the Selden Society for England and the Stair Society for Scotland. Conferences devoted to British Legal History are held biennially. You may also want to read the Organization of American Historians report: Historians and Access to the Files of Lawyers prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee on Access to Lawyers' Files. It was prepared
- [Newsletter Archives](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/newsletter-archives/) - ASLH published a Newsletter in print form until 2008, when it began posting the information formerly contained in the Newsletter to its website. Archived Newsletters for 1995-2008 are available below. All archived newsletters are available in PDF format. If you cannot read PDF files and would like to, please visit the Adobe website to download a
- [What is Legal History?](https://aslh.net/what-is-legal-history/) - Legal history is more lively and interesting than you might think. It encompasses much of human endeavor over time, including the organization and distribution of power in societies, control of violence, rights and property, the protection of vulnerable groups, including women, migrants, racial and religious minorities, women, and more. And the American Society for Legal
- [Annual Reports](https://aslh.net/annual-reports/) - The board of directors of the American Society for Legal History holds its annual meeting at the Society's conference. The following links vary in their contents: All contain highlights of past meetings; most contain minutes of the meetings; some contain committee reports.
- [Mission Statement](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/mission-statement/) - The American Society for Legal History is dedicated to enriching the field of legal history though the scholarly study of the role of law across time, around the world, and with a wide variety of methods. To that end, we facilitate, edit and help to fund publications, organize an annual meeting, and sponsor programs, grants,
- [Future Conferences](https://aslh.net/future-conferences-content/) - ASLH Annual Meetings ASLH plans its Annual Meetings years ahead of time. Save the date for these future conferences, coming up in the next few years!
- [Publications](https://aslh.net/publications/) - The Society sponsors a quarterly journal, the Law and History Review, and a book series, Studies in Legal History.
- [Peter Gonville Stein, BA, LLB (Cantab); PhD (Aberdeen); QC; FBA; Honorary Fellow, ASLH](https://aslh.net/peter-gonville-stein-ba-llb-cantab-phd-aberdeen-qc-fba-honorary-fellow-aslh/) - Peter Stein was born 29 May 1926 and was raised in Liverpool. He was admitted to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge as an Exhibitioner to read classics. However, World War II intervened and he joined the Royal Navy serving in England and the Far East. By the time he returned to Cambridge in 1947, he
- [Past Presidents](https://aslh.net/about-aslh/current-officers-directors-and-committees/past-presidents/)
- [Host a Future Conference](https://aslh.net/host-a-future-conference/) - The American Society for Legal History’s Committee on the Annual Meeting solicits volunteers from the Society’s friends to serve as Local Arrangements Chairs for the Society’s future Annual Meetings. Interesting venues, affordable hotel rates and reasonable funding support for meeting events are highly favored in site selection. Contact the committee’s chair, Joanna Grisinger of Northwestern
- [Thank You](https://aslh.net/thank-you/)
- [News & Announcements](https://aslh.net/news/) - The American Society for Legal History sponsors a number of competitive programs, grants, prizes, and fellowships which benefit our members. We support programs that – in addition to welcoming new participants to our annual meetings — create smaller and more focused venues where junior scholars may develop their skills, seek opportunities for career-building publications, interact
- [Transactions](https://aslh.net/transactions/)
- [Home](https://aslh.net/home/) - About the Book Series This series aims to publish the highest quality work in legal history by both junior and senior scholars. Our goal is to produce monographs that take a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, but always with respect for historical and legal change. The series is dedicated to the understanding of law
- [Historians and Access to the Files of Lawyers](https://aslh.net/resources-for-doing-legal-history-legacy/historians-and-access-to-the-files-of-lawyers/) - :: Historians and Access to the Files of Lawyers :: March 7, 1994[1] Organization of American Historians Ad Hoc Committee on Access to Lawyers’ Files Kermit L. Hall (chair) Paul Finkelman N. E. H. Hull Stanley N. Katz Background The Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians (OAR) in September 1991 formed the Ad Hoc Committee
- [Registration Cancelled](https://aslh.net/registration-cancelled/) - You have cancelled your registration.

## Products

- [ASLH Membership Subscription (Auto-renew)](https://aslh.net/product/aslh-membership-subscription/)
- [ASLH Membership (One Year)](https://aslh.net/product/aslh-membership-one-year/)

## Awards

- [Virtual Early Career Legal History Workshop](https://aslh.net/award/virtual-early-career-legal-history-workshop/) - ASLH Early Career (Virtual) Legal History Workshop Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026 The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) Early Career (Virtual) Legal History Workshop is designed to provide support and an intellectual community to early career scholars working in legal history, broadly defined. One goal of the ASLH’s virtual initiatives is to increase
- [Jane Burbank Global Legal History Article Prize](https://aslh.net/award/jane-burbank-global-legal-history-article-prize/) - The Jane Burbank Article Prize in global legal history will be awarded annually to the best article in regional, global, imperial, comparative, or transnational legal history published in the previous calendar year. Submissions may address any topic or period, and may focus on case studies in which the analysis relates to broader processes or comparisons.
- [Sutherland Prize](https://aslh.net/award/sutherland-prize/) - The Sutherland Prize, named in honor of the late Donald W. Sutherland, a distinguished historian of the law of medieval England and a mentor of many students, is awarded annually, on the recommendation of the Sutherland Prize Committee, to the person or persons who wrote the best article on the legal history of Britain and/or
- [ASLH Early Career Global Legal History Research Fellowships](https://aslh.net/award/early-career-global-legal-history-research-fellowships/) - This new initiative is intended to provide funding for early career scholars, publishing in English, who are working on projects in legal history relating to non-U. S. history topics. Non-U. S. history topics refers to research that does not qualify for the fellowships awarded by the Cromwell Foundation in coordination with the ASLH. Early career
- [Cromwell Fellowships](https://aslh.net/award/cromwell-fellowships/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation makes available a number of $5,000 fellowships to support research and writing in American legal history by early-career scholars. Early-career generally includes those researching or writing a PhD dissertation (or equivalent project) and recent recipients of a graduate degree working on their first major monograph or research project. The Committee
- [John Phillip Reid Book Award](https://aslh.net/award/john-phillip-reid-book-award/) - The John Phillip Reid Book Award is awarded annually for the best monograph by a mid-career or senior scholar, published in English in any of the fields defined broadly as Anglo-American legal history. The prize is named for John Phillip Reid, the prolific legal historian and founding member of the Society, and made possible by
- [Peter Gonville Stein Book Award](https://aslh.net/award/peter-gonville-stein-book-award/) - The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award is awarded annually for the best book in non-US legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all regions outside the United States, as well as global and international history. To be
- [Projects and Proposals Funding](https://aslh.net/award/projects-and-proposals-funding/) - The Projects and Proposals Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the funding of new initiatives in the study, presentation, and production of legal historical scholarship and in the communication of legal history to all its possible publics and audiences. It is the mission of the committee to find ways to
- [Wallace Johnson First Book Program](https://aslh.net/award/wallace-johnson-first-book-program/) - The biennial Wallace Johnson Program for First Book Authors provides advice and support to scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history, broadly defined. In conversation with peers and with the advice of senior scholars, participants develop and revise book proposals and sample chapters, as well as meeting with guest editors to
- [Surrency Prize](https://aslh.net/award/surrency/) - The Surrency Prize is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous year. The prize is named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History.
- [Student Research Colloquium](https://aslh.net/award/student-research-colloquium/) - ASLH STUDENT RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM, 2026 Call for Applications The American Society for Legal History will host its thirteenth annual Student Research Colloquium (SRC) on Wednesday, November 11, and Thursday, November 12, 2026, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Each year, the SRC brings eight graduate students to the site of the ASLH annual meeting to discuss their
- [Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for European Legal History in Global Perspective](https://aslh.net/award/maxplanck/) - The Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for European Legal History in Global Perspective will honor exceptional dissertations on topics in European legal history in global perspective and presented for PhD or JSD degrees awarded in the previous calendar year. Topics may include European legal interactions with people or places outside Europe, legal processes spanning Europe and
- [Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize](https://aslh.net/award/mary-l-dudziak-digital-legal-history-prize/) - The Dudziak Prize, named in honor of Mary L. Dudziak, a leading scholar of twentieth century U.S. legal history and international relations as well as a digital history pioneer, is awarded annually to an outstanding digital legal history project. These projects may take the form of either traditionally published peer reviewed scholarship or born-digital projects
- [Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars](https://aslh.net/award/kathryn-t-preyer-scholars/) - Named after the late Kathryn T. Preyer, a distinguished historian of the law of early America known for her generosity to early career legal historians, the program of Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars is designed to help legal historians at the beginning of their careers. At the annual meeting of the Society two early career legal
- [J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History](https://aslh.net/award/hurst-summer-institute-in-legal-history/) - The J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History is a biennial event sponsored by ASLH and traditionally held in June in Madison, Wisconsin, with support from the Institute for Legal Studies of the University of Wisconsin, where the late Professor James Willard Hurst was a founding member of the modern field of legal history.
- [Global Dissertation Prize](https://aslh.net/award/global-dissertation-prize/) - The Global Dissertation Prize recognizes the best dissertation from the previous calendar year on topics centered outside the United States. Eligible dissertations must be written in English and submitted for a PhD, JSD, or equivalent doctoral degree, excluding the JD, awarded in the previous calendar year (for example, a dissertation for a PhD awarded in 2025
- [Cromwell Dissertation Prize](https://aslh.net/award/cromwell-dissertation-prize/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Dissertation Prize is awarded annually to the best dissertation in any area of American legal history, including constitutional and comparative studies, although topics dealing with the colonial and early national periods will receive some preference. The author of the winning dissertation receives $5,000. Anyone who received a Ph.D. or S.J.D.
- [Cromwell Book Prize](https://aslh.net/award/cromwell-book-prize/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Book Prize is awarded annually to the best book in the field of American legal history by an early career scholar. The prize is designed to recognize and promote new work in the field by graduate students, law students, post-doctoral fellows and early career faculty. The work may be in
- [Cromwell Article Prize](https://aslh.net/award/cromwell-article-prize/) - The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Article Prize is awarded annually to the best article in American legal history published in the preceding calendar year by an early career scholar. Articles published in the field of American legal history, broadly conceived, will be considered. There is a preference for articles in the colonial and early National
- [Anne Fleming Article Prize](https://aslh.net/award/anne-fleming-article-prize/) - The Anne Fleming Article Prize is a joint prize of the ASLH and the Business History Conference (BHC). It is awarded every other year to the author or authors of the best article published in the previous two years in either Law and History Review or Enterprise and Society on the relation of law and business/economy in any region
- [Honorary Fellows](https://aslh.net/award/honorary-fellows/) - Election as an Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Legal History is the highest honor the Society can confer. It recognizes distinguished historians whose scholarship has shaped the broad discipline of legal history and influenced the work of others. Honorary Fellows are the scholars we admire, whom we aspire to emulate, and on whose
- [Craig Joyce Medal](https://aslh.net/award/craig-joyce-medal/) - The Society depends on the volunteer labors of its members. It is fortunate in the number of its members who are willing to join in the business of the Society, which is to foster scholarship and teaching in the broad field of legal history. Each year well over a hundred names appear on this website
- [Small Grants for Legal History Research](https://aslh.net/award/small-grants-for-digital-legal-history-research/) - Responding to continuing constraints on research travel during the pandemic, the ASLH announces a competition for 10 small grants to support legal history research in digital and print sources this summer. Application is open to ASLH members who are graduate students at any stage or recent Ph.D. or J.D graduates (2019 or later). Each successful applicant will

## Conferences

- [2026 Annual Meeting: Banff, Alberta, CA](https://aslh.net/conference/2026-annual-meeting-banff-alberta-ca/) - The deadline for panel proposals has now passed. 2026 ANNUAL MEETING: BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADA November 12-14, 2026 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, AB, CA Welcome to Banff! Banff is a town in the Rocky Mountains in Banff National Park, established as Canada’s first national park in 1885. The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks were
- [2027 Annual Conference: Minneapolis](https://aslh.net/conference/2027-annual-conference-minneapolis/) - The Royal Sonesta Minneapolis Downtown, Nov. 6-8, 2027 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. More to come!
- [2025 Annual Meeting: Detroit](https://aslh.net/conference/2025-annual-meeting-detroit/) - Pre-registration for this event has now closed. Attendees who have not yet registered will be allowed to register on site in Detroit. See the program here! Welcome to Detroit! Popularly known as the Motor City, Detroit enjoyed spectacular mid-century growth as the auto industry brought people, jobs, technology, and culture to Southeastern Michigan. Today,
- [2024 Annual Meeting: San Francisco, CA](https://aslh.net/conference/2024-annual-meeting-san-francisco-ca/) - View the Conference Program Here! Welcome to San Francisco! A quintessential borderland, the city has long been at the crossroads of intersecting peoples and cultures. The result is a stunningly diverse, global city. It is also a city with a complex and visible history. From the immigration detention facilities on Angel Island to the
- [2023 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2023-philadelphia-pa-oct-26-28/) - Welcome to Philadelphia, Legal Historians! (“The Place That Loves You Back”) Few U.S. cities wear their national history with greater pride than Philadelphia. From Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell; to grand remnants of the Centennial Exhibition along the Ben Franklin Parkway and Logan Circle; to William Penn’s aspirationally peacemaking image atop City Hall; to
- [2022 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2022-annual-meeting/) - Welcome to Chicago, Legal Historians! In 2022, the annual conference returns to Chicago for the first time since 2001, and pre-registration is now open. We'll convene November 10-12 at the Chicago Grand Sheraton, and look forward to sharing more details about the meeting as they become available. We hope you'll make plans to join us!
- [2021 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2021-annual-meeting/) - The program for the 51st annual meeting of the ASLH is available here. The 51st annual conference will be held at the InterContinental Hotel, just steps away from the historic French Quarter and the riverfront. COVID-19 data and policies: The fast-changing conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with the delta variant, present unusual challenges. The
- [2020 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2020-annual-meeting/) - The ASLH program committee has organized an exciting short program of online panels to be held on November 13-14, 2020. You can find the schedule below. Registration is free for all ASLH members, and you must be a member to attend. We invite you to register here. The ASLH warmly welcomes students, who can become
- [2010 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2010-annual-meeting/) - In 2010 meeting convened in Philadelphia for its annual meeting, which was held at the Doubletree Inn from November 17, 2010 to November 21, 2010. The meeting was sponsored by the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Hendrik Hartog of Princeton University.
- [2012 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2012-annual-meeting/) - The 2012 annual meeting convened in St. Louis, Missouri from November 8, 2012 to November 11, 2012 at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis. The meeting was sponsored by the Washington University School of Law and the Historical Society of the United States Courts in the Eighth Circuit. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by R.
- [2019 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2019-annual-meeting/) - Greetings Legal Historians! Welcome to Boston! Famously nicknamed “the hub of the solar system” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston has served over the centuries as a center of legal events and controversies that have shaped American legal history. The 1741 Writs of Assistance case and 2003’s Goodridge v. Department of Public Health were both decided
- [2018 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2018-annual-meeting/) - In 2018, the ASLH returned for the first time since 1995 to Houston, the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States. The meeting, which was held at the Hilton-Américas from November 8, 2018 to November 11, 2018, showcased a population center expected to become the nation's third-largest city by 2025 and advanced ASLH's further
- [2004 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2004-annual-meeting/) - The 2004 annual meeting took place in Austin, from October 29, 2004 to October 30, 2004 at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel and the Driskill Hotel. The meeting was sponsored by the University of Texas Law School.
- [2003 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2003-annual-meeting/) - The ASLH returned to Washington, DC for its 2003 annual meeting, which was held at the Capital Hilton from October 29, 2015 to November 1, 2015. The Plenary Session included Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia, John W. Dower of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Charles S. Maier of Harvard University.
- [2002 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2002-annual-meeting/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened in San Diego. The 2002 meeting was held from November 7, 2002 to November 9, 2002 at the U.S. Grant Hotel. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Charles Donahue, Jr. of Harvard University Law School.
- [2017 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2017-annual-meeting/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2017 meeting was held from October 26, 2017 to October 29, 2017 at the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa. The meeting was sponsored by the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Plenary
- [2001 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2001-annual-meeting/) - In 2001, ASLH returned to Chicago for its annual meeting, which was held from November 8, 2001 to November 10, 2001 at the Hotel Allegro. The meeting was sponsored by the American Bar Foundation, DePaul University Law School, John Marshall Law School, Northwestern University Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School. The Plenary
- [2000 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2000-annual-meeting/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened for its annual meeting in Princeton. The meeting was held from October 19, 2000 to October 21, 2000 at the Nassau Inn. The meeting was sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Stanley I. Kutler
- [1999 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/1999-annual-meeting/) - The ASLH returned to Toronto for its 1999 annual meeting, which was held at the Sheraton Centre Hotel from October 21, 1999 to October 23, 1999. The meeting was sponsored by Law Society of Upper Canada, the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, the Osgoode Society, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
- [1998 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/1998-annual-meeting/) - In 1998, ASLH travelled to Seattle for its annual meeting, which was held from October 22, 1998 to October 24, 1998 at the Hilton Seattle. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Lawrence M. Friedman of Stanford University Law School.
- [2005 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2005-annual-meeting/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened in Cincinnati. The 2005 meeting was held from November 10, 2005 to November 12, 2005 at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza. The meeting was sponsored by the University of Cincinnati College of Law. The Plenary Session included Maeva Marcus of the Documentary History of the
- [2006 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2006-annual-meeting/) - In 2006, ASLH returned to Baltimore for the first time since 1983. The annual conference was held from November 16, 2006 to November 19, 2006 at the Baltimore-Radisson Hotel. The meeting was sponsored by the the University of Maryland Law School, the University of Baltimore Law School, and Johns Hopkins University. The Plenary Lecture was
- [2007 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2007-annual-meeting/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened for its annual meeting in Tempe. The meeting was held from October 25, 2007 to October 28, 2007 at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. The meeting was sponsored by the University of Arizona School of Law. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Paul Brand of
- [2008 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2008-annual-meeting/) - The 2008 annual meeting convened in Ottawa, Canada from November 13, 2008 to November 15, 2008 at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier. The meeting was sponsored by the University of Ottawa, the Osgoode Society, and Carlton University. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella, the Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court
- [2009 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2009-annual-meeting/) - In 2009, ASLH travelled to Dallas for its annual meeting, which was held November 12, 2009 to November 14, 2009 at the Fairmont Dallas. The meeting was sponsored by the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Joyce Oldham Appleby, emeritus, of the University of California, Los Angeles.
- [2011 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2011-annual-meeting/) - In 2011, ASLH traveled to Atlanta for its annual meeting, which was held at the Loews Atlanta Hotel from November 10, 2011 to November 13, 2011. The meeting was sponsored by the Georgia State University College of Law and and the Georgia Legal History Foundation. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Linda K. Kerber of
- [2013 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2013-annual-meeting/) - The ASLH met in Miami for the very first time from November 7, 2013 to November 10, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency Miami. The meeting was sponsored by Nova Southeastern University. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Rebecca J. Scott of the University of Michigan and University of Michigan Law School.
- [2014 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2014-annual-meeting-2/) - For the first time in its history, the Society convened for its annual meeting in Denver. The meeting was held from November 6, 2014 to November 9, 2014 at the Four Seasons Denver. The meeting was sponsored by the Colorado Supreme Court, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and the Historical Society of
- [2015 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2015-annual-meeting/) - The ASLH returned to Washington, DC for its 2015 annual meeting, which was held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill from October 29, 2015 to November 1, 2015. The meeting was sponsored by the George Washington University School of Law. The Plenary Lecture was delivered by Laura Kalman of the University of California
- [2016 Annual Meeting](https://aslh.net/conference/2016-annual-meeting/) - The 2016 annual meeting took place in Toronto, Canada from October 27, 2016 to October 30, 2016 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, directly across the street from Union Station. The meeting was sponsored by the Osgoode Society, the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto,

## Resources

- [Irish Legal History Society](https://aslh.net/resource/irish-legal-history-society/) - The Irish Legal History Society’s mission is to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of Irish law, especially by the publication of original documents and scholarly works relating to the history of Irish law, including its institutions, doctrines and personalities, and the reprinting or editing of works of sufficient rarity or
- [Selden Society](https://aslh.net/resource/selden-society/) - The Selden Society is the leading learned society and publisher devoted to English legal history.
- [Welsh Legal History Society](https://aslh.net/resource/welsh-legal-history-society/) - The Welsh Legal History Society exists to spread knowledge of, and promote research into, the rich history of law in Wales.
- [Max Planck Institute for European Legal History](https://aslh.net/resource/max-planck-institute-for-european-legal-history/) - The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History is a research hub for scholarship on legal history in Europe and beyond.
- [Southern African Society of Legal Historians](https://aslh.net/resource/southern-african-society-of-legal-historians/) - The Southern African Society of Legal Historians brings together academics who share an interest in legal history generally, and in particular in the legal history of South Africa.
- [Stair Society](https://aslh.net/resource/stair-society/) - The Stair Society is Scotland’s leading legal history society.
- [Osgoode Society](https://aslh.net/resource/osgoode-society/) - The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History publishes books on Canadian legal history, and creates and maintains an oral history archive.
- [United States Supreme Court Historical Society](https://aslh.net/resource/united-states-supreme-court-historical-society/) - The United States Supreme Court Historical Society supports historical research into the U.S. Supreme Court and conducts educational programs and programs of interest to legal practitioners, scholars, and the general public. A number of other U.S. federal courts also maintain active historical societies.
- [Legal History Project](https://aslh.net/resource/legal-history-project/) - The Legal History Project, created by Peter Hansen, includes directories of societies, programs, and online resources related to legal history.
- [Legal History on the Web](https://aslh.net/resource/legal-history-on-the-web/) - Legal History on the Web is an annotated overview of online legal history resources in English, from all historical periods and regions of the world. It is maintained by the Triangle Legal History Seminar at Duke University.

## SLH Posts

- [Forgotten Hills: Law, Environment, and Social Transformations on the Frontiers of Tibet and China](https://aslh.net/slh/forgotten-hills-law-environment-and-social-transformations-on-the-frontiers-of-tibet-and-china/) - Wesley B. Chaney, Cambridge University Press (Forthcoming September 2026) Forgotten Hills is a book about lost geographies. It is about how the subordination of mountainous Tibet to lowland China meant the erasure of the hills between, and how the legal, environmental, and social transformations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries hardened boundaries between Tibetan, Chinese,
- [Legal Theory in the Colonies: Hindu and Jewish Scholars under British Rule](https://aslh.net/slh/legal-theory-in-the-colonies-hindu-and-jewish-scholars-under-british-rule/) - Assaf Likhovski, Cambridge University Press (Forthcoming August 2026) In colonial India and Mandatory Palestine, early-twentieth-century legal scholars made important contributions to the study of the nature of law, particularly by analyzing Hindu and Jewish law – their ancient religious systems. This book reconstructs the lives and ideas of these scholars, revealing a forgotten global wave
- [The Judgment of the Provinces: The Roman Empire and the Origins of Law and Society](https://aslh.net/slh/the-judgment-of-the-provinces-the-roman-empire-and-the-origins-of-law-and-society/) - Ari Z. Bryen, Cambridge University Press (March 2026) Roman law is justly famous, but what was its relationship to governing an empire? In this book, Ari Z. Bryen argues that law, as the learned practice that we know today, emerged from the challenge of governing a diverse and fractious set of imperial subjects. Through analysis
- [Reluctant Abolitionists: Britain and the End of the Colonial Death Penalty](https://aslh.net/slh/reluctant-abolitionists-britain-and-the-end-of-the-colonial-death-penalty/) - James M. Campbell, Cambridge University Press (February 2026) Britain abolished the death penalty for murder in 1965, but many of Britain's last colonies retained capital murder laws until the 1990s. In this book, James M. Campbell presents the first history of the death sentences imposed under British colonial rule in the late twentieth century; the
- [Captured Consent: Contract Labor in English Charity, Colonization, and War, 1600–1700](https://aslh.net/slh/captured-consent-contract-labor-in-english-charity-colonization-and-war-1600-1700/) - Sonia Tycko, Cambridge University Press (February 2026) Consent has been celebrated as a guarantor of liberty and self-determination; however, its history suggests a different meaning. In this book, Sonia Tycko reconstructs the coercive role of contracts in early modern English labor. The long-term, long-distance, and high-risk nature of pauper apprenticeships, transatlantic indentured servitude, military conscription,
- [Court, Credit, and Capital: Amsterdam's Insolvency Legislation in the Dutch Golden Age](https://aslh.net/slh/court-credit-and-capital-amsterdams-insolvency-legislation-in-the-dutch-golden-age-2/) - Maurits den Hollander, Cambridge University Press (November 2025) Seventeenth-century Amsterdam was a city of innovations. Explosive economic growth, the expansion of overseas trade, and a high level of religious tolerance sparked great institutional, socioeconomic and legal changes, a period generally known as 'the Dutch Golden Age.' In this book, Maurits den Hollander discusses how insolvency
- [The Nation at Sea: The Federal Courts and American Sovereignty, 1789–1825](https://aslh.net/slh/the-nation-at-sea-the-federal-courts-and-american-sovereignty-1789-1825/) - Kevin Arlyck, Cambridge University Press (August 2025) The Nation at Sea tells a new story about the federal judiciary, and about the early United States itself. Most accounts of the nation's transformation from infant republic to world power ignore the courts. Their importance, if any, was limited to domestic politics. But the truth is that,
- [Court, Credit, and Capital: Amsterdam's Insolvency Legislation in the Dutch Golden Age](https://aslh.net/slh/court-credit-and-capital-amsterdams-insolvency-legislation-in-the-dutch-golden-age/) - Maurits den Hollander, Cambridge University Press (August 2025) Seventeenth-century Amsterdam was a city of innovations. Explosive economic growth, the expansion of overseas trade, and a high level of religious tolerance sparked great institutional, socioeconomic and legal changes, a period generally known as 'the Dutch Golden Age.' In this book, Maurits den Hollander discusses how insolvency
- [The God and the Bureaucrat: Roman Law, Imperial Sovereignty, and Other Stories](https://aslh.net/slh/the-god-and-the-bureaucrat-roman-law-imperial-sovereignty-and-other-stories/) - Zachary Herz (Cambridge University Press, July 2025) Why is Roman law so boring? In this book, Zachary Herz argues that the bureaucratic, positivistic world of Roman law is not a distraction from the violent autocracy of the Roman empire, but an imagined escape. Lawyers, bureaucrats, and even emperors used legal writing to think about worlds
- [From Masters of Slaves to Lords of Lands: The Transformation of Ownership in the Western World](https://aslh.net/slh/from-masters-of-slaves-to-lords-of-lands-the-transformation-of-ownership-in-the-western-world/) - James Q. Whitman, Cambridge University Press (November 2024-online, print forthcoming) Today we think of land as the paradigmatic example of property, while in the past, the paradigmatic example was often a slave. In this seminal work, James Q. Whitman asserts that there is no natural form of ownership. Whitman dives deep into the long Western
- [Extradition & Empire: Sovereignty and Subjecthood in Hong Kong](https://aslh.net/slh/extradition-empire-sovereignty-and-subjecthood-in-hong-kong/) - Ivan Lee, Cambridge University Press (September 2025) In the first book-length study of the imperial history of extradition in Hong Kong, Ivan Lee shows how British judges, lawyers, and officials navigated the nature of extradition, debated its legalities, and distinguished it over time from other modalities of criminal jurisdiction – including deportation, rendition, and trial
- [Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857–1922](https://aslh.net/slh/trials-of-sovereignty-mercy-violence-and-the-making-of-criminal-law-in-british-india-1857-1922/) - Alastair McClure, Cambridge University Press (November 2024) Trials of Sovereignty offers the first legal history of mercy and discretion in nineteenth and twentieth-century India. Through a study of large-scale amnesties, the prerogative powers of pardon, executive commutation, and judicial sentencing practices, Alastair McClure argues that discretion represented a vital facet of colonial rule. In a
- [Monitoring American Federalism: The History of State Legislative Resistance](https://aslh.net/slh/monitoring-american-federalism-the-history-of-state-legislative-resistance/) - Christian G. Fritz, Cambridge University Press (January 2023) Monitoring American Federalism examines some of the nation's most significant controversies in which state legislatures have attempted to be active partners in the process of constitutional decision-making. Christian G. Fritz looks at interposition, which is the practice of states opposing federal government decisions that were deemed unconstitutional.
- [Nothing More than Freedom: The Failure of Abolition in American Law](https://aslh.net/slh/nothing-more-than-freedom-the-failure-of-abolition-in-american-law/) - Giuliana Perrone, Cambridge University Press (May 2023) Nothing More than Freedom explores the long and complex legal history of Black freedom in the United States. From the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877, supreme courts in former slave states decided approximately 700 lawsuits associated with the struggle
- [Family Matters: Queer Households and the Half-Century Struggle for Legal Recognition](https://aslh.net/slh/family-matters-queer-households-and-the-half-century-struggle-for-legal-recognition/) - Marie-Amelie George, Cambridge University Press (May 2024) In 1960, consensual sodomy was a crime in every state in America. Fifty-five years later, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the fundamental right to marry. In the span of two generations, American law underwent a dramatic transformation. Though the fight for marriage equality has received
- [Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900](https://aslh.net/slh/execution-state-and-society-in-england-1660-1900/) - Simon Devereaux, Cambridge University Press (October 2023) This book provides the first comprehensive account of execution practices in England and their extraordinary transformation from 1660 to 1900. Agonizing execution rituals were once common. Male traitors were hanged, disembowelled while still alive, then decapitated and quartered. Female traitors were burned alive. And common criminals slowly choked
- [Unraveling Abolition Legal Culture and Slave Emancipation in Colombia](https://aslh.net/slh/unraveling-abolition-legal-culture-and-slave-emancipation-in-colombia/) - Edgardo Perez Morales. Cambridge University Press (January 2022) Unraveling Abolition tells the fascinating story of slaves, former slaves, magistrates and legal workers who fought for emancipation, without armed struggle, from 1781 to 1830. By centering the Colombian judicial forum as a crucible of antislavery, Edgardo Pérez Morales reveals how the meanings of slavery, freedom and
- [Vernacular Law: Writing and the Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France](https://aslh.net/slh/vernacular-law-writing-and-the-reinvention-of-customary-law-in-medieval-france/) - Ada Maria Kuskowski, Cambridge University Press (October 2022) Custom was fundamental to medieval legal practice. Whether in a property dispute or a trial for murder, the aggrieved and accused would go to lay court where cases were resolved according to custom. What custom meant, however, went through a radical shift in the medieval period. Between
- [The Science of Proof: Forensic Medicine in Modern France](https://aslh.net/slh/the-science-of-proof-forensic-medicine-in-modern-france/) - E. Claire Cage, Cambridge University Press (August 2022) The Science of Proof traces the rise of forensic medicine in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France and examines its implications for our understanding of expert authority. Tying real life cases to broader debates, the book analyzes how new forms of medical and scientific knowledge, many of which
- [The Dreadful Word Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts, 1690–1776](https://aslh.net/slh/the-dreadful-word-speech-crime-and-polite-gentlemen-in-massachusetts-1690-1776/) - Kristin A. Olbertson. Cambridge University Press (March 2022). This book, the first comprehensive study of criminal speech in eighteenth-century New England, traces how the criminalization, prosecution, and punishment of speech offenses in Massachusetts helped to establish and legitimate a social and cultural regime of politeness. Analyzing provincial statutes and hundreds of criminal prosecutions, Kristin A.
- [Truth and Privilege Libel Law in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, 1820-1840](https://aslh.net/slh/truth-and-privilege-libel-law-in-massachusetts-and-nova-scotia-1820-1840/) - Lyndsay Campbell. Cambridge University Press (December 2021) Truth and Privilege is a comparative study that brings together legal, constitutional and social history to explore the common law's diverging paths in two kindred places committed to freedom of expression but separated by the American Revolution. Comparing Nova Scotia and Massachusetts, Lyndsay Campbell examines the development of
- [Pain, Penance, and Protest Peine Forte et Dure in Medieval England](https://aslh.net/slh/pain-penance-and-protest-peine-forte-et-dure-in-medieval-england/) - Sara M. Butler. Cambridge University Press (November 2021). In medieval England, a defendant who refused to plead to a criminal indictment was sentenced to pressing with weights as a coercive measure. Using peine forte et dure ('strong and hard punishment') as a lens through which to analyse the law and its relationship with Christianity, Butler
- [Imperial Incarceration Detention without Trial in the Making of British Colonial Africa](https://aslh.net/slh/imperial-incarceration-detention-without-trial-in-the-making-of-british-colonial-africa/) - Michael Lobban. Cambridge University Press (August 2021) For nineteenth-century Britons, the rule of law stood at the heart of their constitutional culture, and guaranteed the right not to be imprisoned without trial. At the same time, in an expanding empire, the authorities made frequent resort to detention without trial to remove political leaders who stood
- [The Laws of Alfred The Domboc and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law](https://aslh.net/slh/the-laws-of-alfred-the-domboc-and-the-making-of-anglo-saxon-law/) - Stefan Jarasinski, Lisi Oliver. Cambridge University Press (May 2021) Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') is the longest and most ambitious legal text of the Anglo-Saxon period. Alfred places his own laws, dealing with everything from sanctuary to feuding to the theft of bees, between a lengthy translation of legal passages from the Bible
- [Martha S. Jones on the Hard Histories at Hopkins Project](https://aslh.net/slh/martha-s-jones-on-the-hard-histories-at-hopkins-project/) - Professor Martha S. Jones, author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America, recently published a fascinating opinion piece in the Washington Post reflecting on her work researching the history of Johns Hopkins University and its ties to slavery. You can find the op-ed here and visit the Hard Histories at
- [Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana](https://aslh.net/slh/becoming-free-becoming-black-race-freedom-and-law-in-cuba-virginia-and-louisiana/) - Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross. Cambridge University Press (January 2020). Available via Cambridge and Amazon. How did Africans become 'blacks' in the Americas? Becoming Free, Becoming Black tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones.
- [Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire](https://aslh.net/slh/almost-citizens-puerto-rico-the-u-s-constitution-and-empire-2/) - Sam Erman. Cambridge University Press (November 2018). Available via Cambridge and Amazon. Almost Citizens lays out the tragic story of how the United States denied Puerto Ricans full citizenship following annexation of the island in 1898. As America became an overseas empire, a handful of remarkable Puerto Ricans debated with US legislators, presidents, judges, and
- [Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England](https://aslh.net/slh/felony-and-the-guilty-mind-in-medieval-england/) - Elizabeth Papp Kamali. Cambridge University Press (July 2019). Available via Cambridge and Amazon. This book explores the role of mens rea, broadly defined as a factor in jury assessments of guilt and innocence from the early thirteenth through the fourteenth century - the first two centuries of the English criminal trial jury. Drawing upon evidence
- [Armed with Sword and Scales: Law, Culture, and Local Courtrooms in London, 1860–1913](https://aslh.net/slh/armed-with-sword-and-scales-law-culture-and-local-courtrooms-in-london-1860-1913/) - Sascha Auerbach. Forthcoming with Cambridge University Press (February 2021). Available to pre-order via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. In the mid-eighteenth century, author and magistrate Henry Fielding adjudicated cases of theft, assault, and public disorder from his London home on Bow Street. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Fielding's modest 'police office' had expanded
- [Coming Soon: Erman's Almost Citizens](https://aslh.net/slh/coming-soon-ermans-almost-citizens/) - Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire is coming soon! Publication is expected in November-December 2018. To get up to speed on the project before it is published, you can watch the below video in which Professor Erman summarizes his book and the major arguments it makes. A transcription of the video follows. The book is
- [Moral Contagion: Black Atlantic Sailors, Citizenship, and Diplomacy in Antebellum America](https://aslh.net/slh/moral-contagion-black-atlantic-sailors-citizenship-and-diplomacy-in-antebellum-america/) - Michael A. Schoeppner. Cambridge University Press. January 2019. Available via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. Between 1822 and 1857, eight Southern states barred the ingress of all free black maritime workers. According to lawmakers, they carried a 'moral contagion' of abolitionism and black autonomy that could be transmitted to local slaves. Those seamen who arrived
- [The First Modern Risk: Workplace Accidents and the Origins of European Social States](https://aslh.net/slh/the-first-modern-risk-workplace-accidents-and-the-origins-of-european-social-states/) - Julia Moses. Cambridge University Press, June 2018. Available to purchase via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. During the late nineteenth century, many countries across Europe adopted national legislation that required employers to compensate workers injured or killed in accidents at work. These laws suggested that the risk of accidents was inherent to work and not
- [Devastation without Representation in Puerto Rico](https://aslh.net/slh/devastation-without-representation-in-puerto-rico/) - In an opinion piece for the LA Times, published on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Professor Sam Erman writes of devastation without representation in Puerto Rico. You can read the piece here. Learn more about Erman's work by viewing his video interviews and reading about his forthcoming book with the series, Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico,
- [Murder in the Shenandoah: Making Law Sovereign in Revolutionary Virginia](https://aslh.net/slh/murder-in-the-shenandoah-making-law-sovereign-in-revolutionary-virginia/) - Jessica K. Lowe. Cambridge University Press (January 2019). Available via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. On July 4, 1791, the fifteenth anniversary of American Independence, John Crane, a descendant of prominent Virginian families, killed his neighbor's harvest worker. Murder in the Shenandoah traces the story of this early murder case as it entangled powerful Virginians
- [Erman Discusses Puerto Rico on the Podcast BackStory](https://aslh.net/slh/erman-discusses-puerto-rico-on-the-podcast-backstory/) - Sam Erman, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, appeared in a recent episode of the podcast BackStory, titled "After Hurricane Maria: The History of Puerto Rico and the United States." The episode, which aired September 7, 2018, examines the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico across history and includes
- [Martha S. Jones Discusses Her Book in the Johns Hopkins Hub](https://aslh.net/slh/martha-s-jones-discusses-her-book-in-the-johns-hopkins-hub/) - Professor Martha S. Jones sat down recently with the Johns Hopkins Hub to discuss her book, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (Cambridge University Press, June 2018). Check out the interview here.
- [Erman on the Gonzales v. Williams Case](https://aslh.net/slh/erman-on-the-gonzales-v-williams-case/) - Professor Sam Erman, author of Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in October 2018), discusses the pivotal Gonzales v. Williams case that shaped the status of Puerto Rico and its citizens in the eyes of the United States government. A lightly edited transcription follows the video. You can read more
- [Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America](https://aslh.net/slh/birthright-citizens-a-history-of-race-and-rights-in-antebellum-america/) - Martha S. Jones. Cambridge University Press, June 2018. Available via Amazon and Cambridge University Press. Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They
- [Jones on Protesting NFL Players](https://aslh.net/slh/jones-on-protesting-nfl-players/) - Martha S. Jones, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and SLH author, recently penned an op-ed in the Washington Post titled "Trump said protesting NFL players 'shouldn't be in this country.' We should take him seriously." In the piece, Professor Jones responds to President Trump's remarks regarding protesting NFL players and considers the historical context
- [Kolla on the Writing Process and Links Between Projects](https://aslh.net/slh/kolla-on-the-writing-process-and-links-between-projects/) - Professor Edward Kolla of Georgetown University Qatar discusses the inspiration for his next project and its ties to his recently published book (Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution) in this third segment of our interview series. You can watch the interview in the video clip below and follow along with the lightly edited transcript
- [Martha Jones on Birthright Citizens](https://aslh.net/slh/martha-jones-on-birthright-citizens/) - In this video, Professor Martha Jones of the University of Michigan discusses her book Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (Cambridge University Press, Summer 2018). The video, courtesy of Michigan Law, provides an overview of the forthcoming book and its implications for thinking about citizenship in America. An edited transcription follows.
- [Binyamin Blum Reviews Likhovski for Jotwell](https://aslh.net/slh/binyamin-blum-reviews-likhovski-for-jotwell/) - In January 2018, Binyamin Blum reviewed Assaf Likhovski's Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2017) for Jotwell. The review can be found on the Jotwell website and is also reproduced below. You can learn more about the book by watching the series of short clips Professor Likhovski recorded for SLH concerning
- [Nicoletti on the Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis](https://aslh.net/slh/365-2/) - Cynthia Nicoletti, Professor of Law and History at the University of Virginia, recently sat down to discuss her latest book, Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis (Cambridge University Press, 2017). In the clip below, she describes the fraught decision whether or not to prosecute Davis for treason, and the broader constitutional implications of the
- [Likhovski on His Writing Process](https://aslh.net/slh/likhovski-on-his-writing-process/) - Sometimes the book you set out to write isn't the book you end up with. Listen as SLH series author Professor Assaf Likhovski of Tel Aviv University discusses the process of writing his latest book, Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2017). A lightly edited transcription follows. If
- [Karen Tani Honored With the Cromwell Book Prize](https://aslh.net/slh/karen-tani-honored-with-the-cromwell-book-prize/) - Studies in Legal History congratulates Professor Karen Tani on receiving the Cromwell Book Prize for her work, States of Dependency: Welfare, Rights, and American Governance, 1935-1972 (Cambridge University Press, 2016). The prize, awarded at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History, recognizes excellence in scholarship in the field of American Legal History by a junior
- [Likhovski on Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel](https://aslh.net/slh/likhovski-on-tax-law-and-social-norms-in-mandatory-palestine-and-israel/) - Assaf Likhovski, Professor of Law and Legal History at Tel Aviv University, was kind enough to sit down recently to discuss his recent book, Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2017). In this clip, he gives a short overview of the book and its importance both to the
- [Paul Garfinkel Honored with the Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize](https://aslh.net/slh/paul-garfinkel-honored-with-the-helen-and-howard-r-marraro-prize/) - Series author Paul Garfinkel has been honored by the American Historical Association's Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for 2017 for his Criminal Law in Liberal and Fascist Italy (Cambridge University Press, 2016). The award recognizes outstanding work in Italian history or Italian-American relations. Garfinkel’s book is the first comprehensive history of the development of penal
- [Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis](https://aslh.net/slh/secession-on-trial-the-treason-prosecution-of-jefferson-davis/) - Cynthia Nicoletti. Cambridge University Press (October 2017). Available to order via Cambridge University Press or Amazon. This book focuses on the post-Civil War treason prosecution of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, which was seen as a test case on the major question that animated the Civil War: the constitutionality of secession. The case never went to trial
- [Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution](https://aslh.net/slh/sovereignty-international-law-and-the-french-revolution/) - Edward James Kolla. Cambridge University Press, October 2017. Available via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. The advent of the principle of popular sovereignty during the French Revolution inspired an unintended but momentous change in international law. Edward James Kolla explains that between 1789 and 1799, the idea that peoples ought to determine their fates in
- [An Exchange on Critical Legal Studies between Robert W. Gordon and William Nelson](https://aslh.net/slh/an-exchange-on-critical-legal-studies-between-robert-w-gordon-and-william-nelson/) - Studies in Legal History (SLH) is pleased to share with our readers an exchange between Robert W. Gordon and William Nelson on critical legal studies. This exchange, of interest to legal historians, was not included in SLH’s publication of Gordon’s collected essays because of its nature as a dialogue between the two scholars, rather than
- [Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems: Who Said That a 44 Year-Old Monograph Can't Be Relevant?](https://aslh.net/slh/impeachment-the-constitutional-problems-who-said-that-a-44-year-old-monograph-cant-be-relevant/) - R. B. Bernstein, City College of New York In today’s atmosphere of constitutional sturm und drang, many are revisiting the 1972-1974 Watergate crisis, which forced President Richard M. Nixon to resign. The Studies in Legal History series played a supporting role in that crisis by publishing Raoul Berger’s Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems (1973). Impeachment made
- [Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel](https://aslh.net/slh/tax-law-and-social-norms-in-mandatory-palestine-and-israel/) - Assaf Likhovski (Cambridge University Press, July 2017). Available to order from Cambridge University Press and Amazon. This book describes how a social-norms model of taxation rose and fell in British-ruled Palestine and the State of Israel in the mid-twentieth century. Such a model, in which non-legal means were used to foster compliance, appeared in the
- [Taming the Past: Essays on Law in History and History in Law](https://aslh.net/slh/taming-the-past-law-in-history-and-history-in-law/) - Robert W. Gordon (Cambridge University Press, June 2017). Available via Cambridge University Press or Amazon. Listen here as Professor Gordon discusses his book. Lawyers and judges often make arguments based on history - on the authority of precedent and original constitutional understandings. They argue both to preserve the inspirational, heroic past and to discard its darker pieces
- [McKinley Honored with Judy Ewell Award](https://aslh.net/slh/mckinley-honored-with-judy-ewell-award/) - It is with great pleasure that we announce that Professor Michelle McKinley has been awarded the 2017 Judy Ewell Award for the Best Publication in Women’s History, presented by the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies (RMCLAS). She received this honor for her recent publication with the Studies in Legal History series, Fractional Freedoms:
- [Criminal Law in Liberal and Fascist Italy](https://aslh.net/slh/criminal-law-in-liberal-and-fascist-italy/) - Paul Garfinkel, December 2016. Cambridge University Press. Available to purchase via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. By extending the chronological parameters of existing scholarship, and by focusing on legal experts’ overriding and enduring concern with ‘“-dangerous-”’ forms of common crime, this book offers a major reinterpretation of criminal-law reform and legal culture in Italy from
- [SLH Welcomes Reuel Schiller to the Editorial Team](https://aslh.net/slh/slh-welcomes-reuel-schiller-to-the-editorial-team/) - Studies in Legal History Editors Holly Brewer, Michael Lobban, and Sarah Barringer Gordon welcome Reuel Schiller to the ALH editorial team. “I am deeply honored to become a co-editor of the Society’s Studies in Legal History series,” Schiller said. “The series’ list is a tremendous one, and its role in nurturing young legal historians is
- [Michelle McKinley On Fractional Freedoms](https://aslh.net/slh/101-2/) - Professor Michelle McKinley, the Bernard B. Kliks Associate Professor of Law at the University of Oregon School of Law, discusses her forthcoming book Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600-1700 (Cambridge University Press, September 2016). The book explores slavery and what Professor McKinley terms “fractional freedoms” in the context of colonial
- [Sophia Lee and Michelle McKinley on Archival Finds](https://aslh.net/slh/sophia-lee-and-michelle-mckinley-on-archival-finds/) - What makes an archival visit go from good to great? Professors Michelle McKinley of Oregon University School of Law and Sophia Lee of the University of Pennsylvania Law School discuss "happenstance discoveries" made in the archives and the significance of these finds to their own projects. Read more about the works shaped by this archival
- [Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600–1700](https://aslh.net/slh/fractional-freedoms-slavery-intimacy-and-legal-mobilization-in-colonial-lima-1600-1700/) - Michelle McKinley. September 2016. Cambridge University Press. Available to purchase via Cambridge University Press and Amazon. Fractional Freedoms explores how thousands of slaves in colonial Peru were able to secure their freedom, keep their families intact, negotiate lower self-purchase prices, and arrange transfers of ownership by filing legal claims. Through extensive archival research, Michelle A. McKinley
- [States of Dependency: Welfare, Rights, and American Governance, 1935-1972](https://aslh.net/slh/states-of-dependency-welfare-rights-and-american-governance-1935-1972/) - Karen M. Tani April 2016. Order online through Amazon or Cambridge University Press (ISBN: 9781107613218). Who bears responsibility for the poor, and who may exercise the power that comes with that responsibility? Amid the Great Depression, American reformers answered this question in new ways, with profound effects on long-standing practices of governance and entrenched understandings of citizenship. States of
- [Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863–1945](https://aslh.net/slh/women-and-justice-for-the-poor-a-history-of-legal-aid-1863-1945/) - Felice Batlan. April 2015. Order online through Cambridge University Press or Amazon. Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863-1945 re-examines our fundamental assumptions about the American legal profession, and the boundaries between “professional” lawyers, “lay lawyers,” and social workers. Putting legal history and women’s history in dialogue, it demonstrates that
- [The Old English Penitentials and Anglo-Saxon Law](https://aslh.net/slh/the-old-english-penitentials-and-anglo-saxon-law/) - Stefan Jurasinski. April 2015. Order online via Cambridge University Press or Amazon. In this book, Stefan Jurasinski offers a rich new insight into the nature of law and society in Anglo-Saxon England through a close study of penitential texts, written in the vernacular for priestly use. As these texts bear witness, Anglo-Saxon England’s code of norms
- [Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture 1772-1947](https://aslh.net/slh/law-and-identity-in-colonial-south-asia-parsi-legal-culture-1772-1947/) - Mitra Sharafi. March 2014. Order online through The Cambridge University Press or Amazon. ISBN: 9781107047976. This book explores the legal culture of the Parsis, or Zoroastrians, an ethnoreligious community unusually invested in the colonial legal system of British India and Burma. Rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with the state, the Parsis
- [The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right](https://aslh.net/slh/the-workplace-constitution-from-the-new-deal-to-the-new-right/) - Sophia Z. Lee. October 2014. Order online through the Cambridge University Press or Amazon. ISBN: 9781107613218. Read reviews for The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right: Review by Professor Garden in JOTWELL. Review by Professor Estlund in Texas Law Review. Review by Kevin Boyle in Business History Review. Today, most Americans lack constitutional rights on the job. But
- [The Fascists and the Jews of Italy: Mussolini’s Race Laws, 1938-1943](https://aslh.net/slh/the-fascists-and-the-jews-of-italy-mussolinis-race-laws-1938-1943/) - Michael A. Livingston. December 2013. Order online through Cambridge University Press or Amazon. ISBN: 9781107027565. From 1938 until 1943 – before the German occupation and accompanying Holocaust – Fascist Italy drafted and enforced a comprehensive set of anti-Semitic laws. Notwithstanding later rationalizations, the laws were enforced and administered with a high degree of severity and resulted in
- [Before Eminent Domain: Toward a History of Expropriation of Land for the Common Good](https://aslh.net/slh/before-eminent-domain-toward-a-history-of-expropriation-of-land-for-the-common-good/) - Susan Reynolds. Published 2010. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3353-7. In this concise history of expropriation of land for the common good in Europe and North America from medieval times to 1800, Susan Reynolds contextualizes the history of an important legal doctrine regarding the relationship between government and the institution
- [Juries and the Transformation of Criminal Justice in France in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries](https://aslh.net/slh/juries-and-the-transformation-of-criminal-justice-in-france-in-the-nineteenth-and-twentieth-centuries/) - James M. Donovan. Published 2010. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3363-6. James Donovan takes a comprehensive approach to the history of the jury in modern France by investigating the legal, political, sociocultural, and intellectual aspects of jury trial from the Revolution through the twentieth century. He demonstrates that these juries,
- [Domestic Secrets: Women and Property in Sweden, 1600-1857](https://aslh.net/slh/domestic-secrets-women-and-property-in-sweden-1600-1857/) - Maria Ågren. Published 2009. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3320-9. Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, women’s role in the Swedish economy was renegotiated and reconceptualized. Maria Agren chronicles changes in married women’s property rights, revealing the story of Swedish women’s property as not just a simple narrative of the
- [Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930](https://aslh.net/slh/working-knowledge-employee-innovation-and-the-rise-of-corporate-intellectual-property-1800-1930/) - Catherine L. Fisk. Published 2009. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3302-5. Skilled workers of the early nineteenth century enjoyed a degree of professional independence because workplace knowledge and technical skill were their “property,” or at least their attribute. In most sectors of today’s economy, however, it is a
- [Catalonia’s Advocates: Lawyers, Society, and Politics in Barcelona, 1759-1900](https://aslh.net/slh/catalonias-advocates-lawyers-society-and-politics-in-barcelona-1759-1900/) - Stephen Jacobson. Published 2009. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3297-4. Offering a window into the history of the modern legal profession in Western Europe, Stephen Jacobson presents a history of lawyers in the most industrialized city on the Mediterranean. Far from being mere curators of static law, Barcelona’s
- [The Inception of Modern Professional Education: C. C. Langdell, 1826-1906](https://aslh.net/slh/the-inception-of-modern-professional-education-c-c-langdell-1826-1906/) - Bruce A. Kimball. Published 2009. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3257-8. Christopher C. Langdell (1826-1906) is one of the most influential figures in the history of American professional education. As dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895, he conceived, designed, and built the educational model that
- [Beyond the Prison Gates: Punishment and Welfare in Germany, 1850-1933](https://aslh.net/slh/beyond-the-prison-gates-punishment-and-welfare-in-germany-1850-1933/) - Warren Rosenblum. Published 2009. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3204-2. Germany today has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the industrialized world, and social welfare principles play an essential role at all levels of the German criminal justice system. Warren Rosenblum examines the roots of this social
- [Constituting Empire: New York and the Transformation of Constitutionalism in the Atlantic World, 1664-1830](https://aslh.net/slh/constituting-empire-new-york-and-the-transformation-of-constitutionalism-in-the-atlantic-world-1664-1830/) - Daniel J. Hulsebosch. Published September 2008. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5920-9. According to the traditional understanding of American constitutional law, the Revolution produced a new conception of the constitution as a set of restrictions on the power of the state rather than a mere description of governmental
- [Slavery on Trial: Law, Abolitionism, and Print Culture](https://aslh.net/slh/slavery-on-trial-law-abolitionism-and-print-culture/) - Jeannine Marie DeLombard. Published May 2007. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5812-7. America’s legal consciousness was high during the era that saw the imprisonment of abolitionist editor William Lloyd Garrison, the execution of slave revolutionary Nat Turner, and the hangings of John Brown and his Harpers Ferry co-conspirators. Jeannine Marie
- [Law and Identity in Mandate Palestine](https://aslh.net/slh/law-and-identity-in-mandate-palestine/) - Assaf Likhovski. Published June 2006. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3017-8. One of the major questions facing the world today is the role of law in shaping identity and in balancing tradition with modernity. In an arid corner of the Mediterranean region in the first decades of the
- [The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865](https://aslh.net/slh/the-anti-rent-era-in-new-york-law-and-politics-1839-1865/) - Charles W. McCurdy. Published June 2006. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press or Amazon. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5765-6. A compelling blend of legal and political history, this book chronicles the largest tenant rebellion in U.S. history. From its beginning in the rural villages of eastern New York in 1839 until its collapse in 1865,
- [Transborder Fugitives, Extradition, and Political Crimes in Modern China](https://aslh.net/slh/transborder-fugitives-extradition-and-political-crimes-in-modern-china/) - Jenny Huangfu Day, Cambridge University Press (November 2025) Uncovering a series of landmark but often overlooked extradition cases between China and foreign powers from the 1860s to the 1920s, this study challenges the prevailing conception that political crimes in China were solely a domestic phenomenon. Extradition and extraterritoriality played an important role in shaping laws
- [Erman on the Inspiration for His Book and Its Relevance Today](https://aslh.net/slh/erman-on-the-inspiration-for-his-book-and-its-relevance-today/) - Professor Sam Erman, author of Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire (forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in October 2018), discusses the inspiration for his book, as well as its contemporary relevance. A lightly edited transcription follows the video. You can read more about the book here. I’m interested in the question of citizenship.
- [Call for Applications: Johnson Program for First Book Authors](https://aslh.net/slh/call-for-applications-johnson-program-for-first-book-authors/) - The American Society for Legal History (ASLH) announces a new program designed to provide advice and support to scholars working toward the publication of first books in legal history, broadly defined. In conversation with peers and with the advice of senior scholars, participants will develop and revise book proposals and sample chapters, and they will
- [Kolla on Sources](https://aslh.net/slh/kolla-on-sources/) - Professor Edward Kolla of Georgetown University Qatar discusses the source base for his recent book, Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and the importance of one source in particular--diplomatic communiques. A lightly edited transcript follows. You can also check out further conversations with Professor Kolla about his work here.
- [Kolla on Popular Sovereignty and the French Revolution](https://aslh.net/slh/kolla-on-popular-sovereignty-and-the-french-revolution/) - Professor Edward Kolla of Georgetown University Qatar delves into the history of the idea of popular sovereignty, its roots in the French Revolution, and its relevance to territorial claims in more modern times. Professor Kolla is the author of Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2017). A lightly edited transcript of
- [Likhovski on "One of the Best Parts of Writing the Book"--His Sources](https://aslh.net/slh/likhovski-on-one-of-the-best-parts-of-writing-the-book-his-sources/) - In a second clip from our 3-part interview, series author Professor Assaf Likhovski describes the joy of discovering unexpected sources, and how those same sources fundamentally shaped his project. You can read more about Professor Likhovski's book, Tax Law and Social Norms in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2017), here. If you missed part
- [Reviews Roll In For McKinley's Fractional Freedoms](https://aslh.net/slh/susan-hogue-negrete-reviews-mckinleys-fractional-freedoms/) - Professor Michelle McKinley's recent publication with Studies in Legal History, Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) continues to garner favorable reviews: You can read Susan Hogue Negrete's October 2017 review of Fractional Freedoms in H-LatAm here. Lea VanderVelde's November 2017 review of Fractional Freedoms in Law and History Review Volume 35,
- [The American Society of Legal History Annual Meeting 2017](https://aslh.net/slh/coming-up-the-american-society-of-legal-history-annual-meeting-2017/) - The American Society of Legal History will hold its annual meeting in Las Vegas on October 26th, 27th, and 28th. SLH is particularly excited about the Friday afternoon “author meets reader” session on Michelle McKinley’s book Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600–1700. Fractional Freedoms, which was awarded the 2017 Judy
- [Robert W. Gordon on Taming the Past](https://aslh.net/slh/robert-gordon-on-taming-the-past/) - Professor Robert W. Gordon of Stanford Law School discusses his book, a collection of essays entitled Taming the Past: Essays on Law and History and History in Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017). The essays examine the ways in which lawyers make use of history and attempt to “tame” it to their own purposes. In the video
- [Crimes against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880-1960](https://aslh.net/slh/crimes-against-children-sexual-violence-and-legal-culture-in-new-york-city-1880-1960/) - Stephen Robertson. Published April 2005. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5596-6. In the first half of the twentieth century, Americans’ intense concern with sex crimes against children led to a wave of public discussion, legislative action, and criminal prosecution. Stephen Robertson provides the first large-scale, long-term study of how American
- [Yale Law School and the Sixties: Revolt and Reverberations](https://aslh.net/slh/yale-law-school-and-the-sixties-revolt-and-reverberations/) - Laura Kalman. Published October 2005. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2966-0. The development of the modern Yale Law School is deeply intertwined with the story of a group of students in the 1960s who worked to unlock democratic visions of law and social change that they associated with Yale’s past
- [English Common Law in the Age of Mansfield](https://aslh.net/slh/english-common-law-in-the-age-of-mansfield/) - James Oldham. Published July 2004. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5532-4. In the eighteenth century, the English common law courts laid the foundation that continues to support present-day Anglo-American law. Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, 1756-1788, was the dominant judicial force behind these developments. In
- [Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and the Empire, 1562-1955](https://aslh.net/slh/masters-servants-and-magistrates-in-britain-and-the-empire-1562-1955/) - Douglas Hay, Paul Craven. Published November 2004. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2877-9. Master and servant acts, the cornerstone of English employment law for more than four hundred years, gave largely unsupervised, inferior magistrates wide discretion over employment relations, including the power to whip, fine, and imprison men, women, and
- [The Bar and the Old Bailey, 1750-1850](https://aslh.net/slh/the-bar-and-the-old-bailey-1750-1850/) - Allyson N. May. Published November 2003. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2806-9. Allyson May chronicles the history of the English criminal trial and the development of a criminal bar in London between 1750 and 1850. She charts the transformation of the legal process and the evolution of professional standards of
- [The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America](https://aslh.net/slh/the-mormon-question-polygamy-and-constitutional-conflict-in-nineteenth-century-america/) - Sarah Barringer Gordon. Published January 2002. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4987-3. From the Mormon Church’s public announcement of its sanction of polygamy in 1852 until its formal decision to abandon the practice in 1890, people on both sides of the “Mormon question” debated central questions of constitutional law. Did
- [The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350-1870](https://aslh.net/slh/the-bar-and-the-old-bailey-1750-1850-posted-in-our-collection-2005-1970-studies-in-legal-history-0-comments-the-bar-and-the-old-bailey-1750-1850-allyson-n-may-published-november-2003-or/) - Robert J. Steinfeld. Published June 2002. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5452-5. Examining the emergence of the modern conception of free labor–labor that could not be legally compelled, even though voluntarily agreed upon–Steinfeld explains how English law dominated the early American colonies, making violation of al labor agreements punishable by
- [Selling the Church: The English Parish in Law, Commerce, and Religion, 1350-1550](https://aslh.net/slh/selling-the-church-the-english-parish-in-law-commerce-and-religion-1350-1550/) - Robert C. Palmer. Published November 2002. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2743-7. In the years of expanding state authority following the Black Death, English common law permitted the leasing of parishes by their rectors and vicars, who then pursued interests elsewhere and left the parish in the control of lay
- [The Invention of Party Politics: Federalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Constitutional Development in Jacksonian Illinois](https://aslh.net/slh/the-invention-of-party-politics-federalism-popular-sovereignty-and-constitutional-development-in-jacksonian-illinois/) - Gerald Leonard. Published December 2002. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2744-4. This ambitious work uncovers the constitutional foundations of that most essential institution of modern democracy, the political party. Taking on Richard Hofstadter’s classic The Idea of a Party System, it rejects the standard view that Martin Van Buren and
- [English Law in the Age of the Black Death, 1348-1381: A Transformation of Governance and Law](https://aslh.net/slh/english-law-in-the-age-of-the-black-death-1348-1381-a-transformation-of-governance-and-law/) - Robert C. Palmer. Published February 2001. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4954-5. Robert Palmer’s pathbreaking study shows how the Black Death triggered massive changes in both governance and law in fourteenth-century England, establishing the mechanisms by which the law adapted to social needs for centuries thereafter. The Black Death killed one-third
- [The Legalist Reformation](https://aslh.net/slh/neighbors-and-strangers-law-and-community-in-early-connecticut-posted-in-our-collection-2005-1970-studies-in-legal-history-0-comments-neighbors-and-strangers-law-and-community-in-early-conne/) - William E. Nelson. Published March 2001. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2591-4. Based on a detailed examination of New York case law, this pathbreaking book shows how law, politics, and ideology in the state changed in tandem between 1920 and 1980. Early twentieth-century New York was the scene of intense
- [Neighbors and Strangers: Law and Community in Early Connecticut](https://aslh.net/slh/neighbors-and-strangers-law-and-community-in-early-connecticut/) - Bruce H. Mann. Published August 2001. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5365-8. Combining legal and social history, Bruce Mann explores the relationship between law and society from the mid-seventeenth century to the eve of the Revolution. Analyzing a sample of more than five thousand civil cases from the records of local
- [The Great Catastrophe of My Life: Divorce in the Old Dominion](https://aslh.net/slh/the-great-catastrophe-of-my-life-divorce-in-the-old-dominion/) - Thomas E. Buckley, S.J. Published 2001. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5380-1. From the end of the Revolution until 1851, the Virginia legislature granted most divorces in the state. It granted divorces rarely, however, turning down two-thirds of those who petitioned for them. Men and women who sought release from
- [Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945](https://aslh.net/slh/inventing-the-criminal-a-history-of-german-criminology-1880-1945/) - Richard F. Wetzell. Published August 2000. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2535-8. Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of biological research into the causes of crime, but the origins of this kind of research date back to the late nineteenth century. Here, Richard Wetzell presents the first history of German
- [Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619-1860](https://aslh.net/slh/southern-slavery-and-the-law-1619-1860/) - Thomas D. Morris. Published February 1999. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4817-3. This volume is the first comprehensive history of the evolving relationship between American slavery and the law from colonial times to the Civil War. As Thomas Morris clearly shows, racial slavery came to the English colonies as an institution
- [Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems](https://aslh.net/slh/impeachment-the-constitutional-problems/) - Raoul Berger. Published 1999. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674444782. The little understood yet volcanic power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is dissected through history by the nation’s leading legal scholar on the subject. Berger offers authoritative insight into “high crimes and misdemeanors.” He sheds new light on whether impeachment is
- [The Republic According to John Marshall Harlan](https://aslh.net/slh/the-republic-according-to-john-marshall-harlan/) - Linda Przybyszewski. Published September 1999. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4789-3. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911) is best known for condemning racial segregation in his dissent from Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, when he declared, “Our Constitution is color-blind.” But in other judicial decisions–as well as in some areas of his
- [Reconstructing the Household: Families, Sex, and the Law in the Nineteenth-Century South](https://aslh.net/slh/southern-slavery-and-the-law-1619-1860-posted-in-our-collection-2005-1970-studies-in-legal-history-0-comments-southern-slavery-and-the-law-1619-1860-thomas-d-morris-published-february-19/) - Peter W. Bardaglio. Published March 1998. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4712-1. In Reconstructing the Household, Peter Bardaglio examines the connections between race, gender, sexuality, and the law in the nineteenth-century South. He focuses on miscegenation, rape, incest, child custody, and adoption laws to show how southerners struggled with the conflicts and
- [The Farmer’s Benevolent Trust: Law and Agricultural Cooperation in Industrial America, 1865-1945](https://aslh.net/slh/the-farmers-benevolent-trust-law-and-agricultural-cooperation-in-industrial-america-1865-1945/) - Victoria Saker Woeste. Published September 1998. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4731-2. Americans have always regarded farming as a special calling, one imbued with the Jeffersonian values of individualism and self- sufficiency. As Victoria Saker Woeste demonstrates, farming’s cultural image continued to shape Americans’ expectations of rural society long after industrialization radically transformed the business of agriculture. Even
- [Law, Land, and Family: Aristocratic Inheritance in England, 1300 to 1800](https://aslh.net/slh/law-land-and-family-aristocratic-inheritance-in-england-1300-to-1800/) - Eileen Spring. Published February 1997. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4642-1. Eileen Spring presents a fresh interpretation of the history of inheritance among the English gentry and aristocracy. In a work that recasts both the history of real property law and the history of the family, she finds that one
- [Heart versus Head: Judge-Made Law in Nineteenth-Century America](https://aslh.net/slh/heart-versus-head-judge-made-law-in-nineteenth-century-america/) - Peter Karsten. Published September 1997. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-2340-8. Challenging traditional accounts of the development of American private law, Peter Karsten offers an important new perspective on the making of the rules of common law and equity in nineteenth-century courts. The central story of that era, he finds,
- [The People’s Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America](https://aslh.net/slh/the-peoples-welfare-law-and-regulation-in-nineteenth-century-america/) - William J. Novak. Published December 1996. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4611-7. Much of today’s political rhetoric decries the welfare state and our maze of government regulations. Critics hark back to a time before the state intervened so directly in citizens’ lives. In The People’s Welfare, William Novak refutes this vision
- [Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment: Temperance Reform, Legal Culture, and the Polity, 1880-1920](https://aslh.net/slh/shaping-the-eighteenth-amendment-temperance-reform-legal-culture-and-the-polity-1880-1920/) - Richard F. Hamm. Published February 1995. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4493-9. Richard Hamm examines prohibitionists’ struggle for reform from the late nineteenth century to their great victory in securing passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. Because the prohibition movement was a quintessential reform effort, Hamm uses it as a case
- [American Legal Realism and Empirical Social Science](https://aslh.net/slh/american-legal-realism-and-empirical-social-science/) - John Henry Schlegel. Published 1995. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5753-3. John Henry Schlegel recovers a largely ignored aspect of American Legal Realism, a movement in legal thought in the 1920s and 1930s that sought to bring the modern notion of empirical science into the study and teaching of law.
- [Laws Harsh As Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law](https://aslh.net/slh/laws-harsh-as-tigers-chinese-immigrants-and-the-shaping-of-modern-immigration-law/) - Lucy E. Salyer. Published November 1995. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4530-1. Focusing primarily on the exclusion of the Chinese, Lucy Salyer analyzes the popular and legal debates surrounding immigration law and its enforcement during the height of nativist sentiment in the early twentieth century. She argues that the struggles between
- [Protecting the Best Men: An Interpretive History of the Law of Libel](https://aslh.net/slh/protecting-the-best-men-an-interpretive-history-of-the-law-of-libel/) - Norman L. Rosenberg. Published September 1990. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4290-4. From the trial of John Peter Zenger in the eighteenth century to the recent libel cases of William Westmoreland and Ariel Sharon, political defamation cases have attracted considerable attention. As Norman Rosenberg shows, cases like these raise fundamental questions
- [Women and the Law of Property in Early America](https://aslh.net/slh/women-and-the-law-of-property-in-early-america/) - Marylynn Salmon. Published February 1989. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 78-0-8078-4244-7. In this first comprehensive study of women’s property rights in early America, Marylynn Salmon discusses the effect of formal rules of law on women’s lives. By focusing on such areas such as conveyancing, contracts, divorce, separate estates, and widows’ provisions,
- [The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800-1880](https://aslh.net/slh/the-transformation-of-criminal-justice-philadelphia-1800-1880/) - Allen Steinberg. Published November 1989. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 9-780-8078-1844-2. Allen Steinberg brings to life the court-centered criminal justice system of nineteenth-century Philadelphia, chronicles its eclipse, and contrasts it to the system — dominated by the police and public prosecutor — that replaced it. He offers a major reinterpretation
- [Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in Nineteenth-Century America](https://aslh.net/slh/governing-the-hearth-law-and-the-family-in-nineteenth-century-america/) - Michael Grossberg. Published August 1988. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4225-6. Presenting a new framework for understanding the complex but vital relationship between legal history and the family, Michael Grossberg analyzes the formation of legal policies on such issues as common law marriage, adoption, and rights for illegitimate children. He
- [Custom, Kinship, and Gifts to Saints: The Laudatio Parentum in Western France, 1050-1150](https://aslh.net/slh/custom-kinship-and-gifts-to-saints-the-laudatio-parentum-in-western-france-1050-1150/) - Stephen D. White. Published 1988 (Out of Print). Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-6640-5. White combines an intensive study of medieval law with insights from anthropology, religion, and social history to create a picture of French society in the Middle Ages which is impressive in its breadth and illuminating in
- [Transfers of Property in Eleventh-Century Norman Law](https://aslh.net/slh/transfers-of-property-in-eleventh-century-norman-law/) - Emily Zack Tabuteau. Published 1988. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-6628-3. Perhaps the greatest problem of medieval property law was that third parties and even grantors themselves often challenged transactions, making the lives of grantees miserable with lawsuits or forcible seizures. By the eleventh century, many devices for attempting to
- [Law School: Legal Education in America from the 1850s to the 1980s](https://aslh.net/slh/transfers-of-property-in-eleventh-century-norman-law-posted-in-our-collection-2005-1970-studies-in-legal-history-0-comments-transfers-of-property-in-eleventh-century-norman-law-emily-zack-ta/) - Robert Stevens. Published February 1987. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4175-4. In this first general history of legal education, Stevens traces the development of law schools, the legal profession, and legal thought, relating their evolution to intellectual, political, and social trends. He describes how the establishment gained power over education after
- [Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic](https://aslh.net/slh/supreme-court-justice-joseph-story-statesman-of-the-old-republic/) - R. Kent Newmyer. Published August 1986. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4164-8. The primary founder and guiding spirit of the Harvard Law School and the most prolific publicist of the nineteenth century, Story served as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845. His attitudes and goals
- [Public Property and Private Power: The Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730-1870](https://aslh.net/slh/public-property-and-private-power-the-corporation-of-the-city-of-new-york-in-american-law-1730-1870/) - Hendrik Hartog. Published October 1983, The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 9-780-8078-1562-5. Related Titles: Crimes against Children: Sexual Violence and Legal Culture in New York City, 1880-1960 (Apr 30, 2005) Stephen Robertson. Published April 2005. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-5596-6. In the first half of the twentieth century,
- [Dispute and Conflict Resolution in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1725-1825](https://aslh.net/slh/dispute-and-conflict-resolution-in-plymouth-county-massachusetts-1725-1825/) - William E. Nelson. Published 1982. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-9736-2. Nelson identifies three principal institutions involved in conflict resolution: the twon meeting, the church congregation, and the courts of law. He subsequently determines the type of cases over which each institution had jurisdiction and studies the procedures by which
- [Law and Society in Puritan Massachusetts: Essex County, 1629-1692](https://aslh.net/slh/law-and-society-in-puritan-massachusetts-essex-county-1629-1692/) - David Thomas Konig. Published January 1981. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4081-8. Distinguished by the critical value it assigns to law in Puritan society, this study describes precisely how the Massachusetts legal system differed from England’s and how equity and an adapted common law became so useful to ordinary individuals. The
- [In Defiance of the Law: The Standing-Army Controversy, the Two Constitutions, and the Coming of the American Revolution](https://aslh.net/slh/in-defiance-of-the-law-the-standing-army-controversy-the-two-constitutions-and-the-coming-of-the-american-revolution/) - John Phillip Reid. Published April 1981, The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 9-780-8078-1449-9. Related Titles: Before Eminent Domain: Toward a History of Expropriation of Land for the Common Good (Sep 20, 2010) Susan Reynolds. Published 2010. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-3353-7. In this concise history of expropriation of
- [On the Laws and Customs of England : Essays in Honor of Samuel E. Thorne](https://aslh.net/slh/on-the-laws-and-customs-of-england-essays-in-honor-of-samuel-e-thorne/) - Morris S. Arnold, Thomas A. Green, Sally A. Scully and Stephen D. White. Published 1981 (out of print). Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-7814-9. Investigating a wide range of problems in the development of English law, this collection of original essays honors the contributions of Samuel D. Thorne to the
- [An Imperfect Union : Slavery, Federalism, and Comity](https://aslh.net/slh/an-imperfect-union-slavery-federalism-and-comity/) - Paul Finkelman. Published 1981 (Out of Print), The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 080-781-4385. Reprint of the first and only edition. Finkelman describes the judicial turmoil that ensued when slaves were taken into free states, and the resultant issues of the conflict of laws, comity and cooperation between the states, their Constitutional obligations, and
- [The Roots of Justice: Crime and Punishment in Alameda County, California, 1870-1910](https://aslh.net/slh/dispute-and-conflict-resolution-in-plymouth-county-massachusetts-1725-1825-posted-in-our-collection-2005-1970-studies-in-legal-history-0-comments-dispute-and-conflict-resolution-in-plymouth/) - Lawrence M. Friedman, Robert V. Percival. Published 1981. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-9748-5. Focusing on a single county at a time when the population grew from 24,000 to 246,000, the authors combine statistical analysis of documentary sources, contemporary newspaper accounts, and exploration in criminal case files to give a
- [Faithful Magistrates and Republican Lawyers](https://aslh.net/slh/faithful-magistrates-and-republican-lawyers/) - A. G. Roeber. Published 1981. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-9766-9. Until the mid-1700s, law was not thought of as a science or profession. Most Virginians adhered to the English country tradition that considered law to be a local and personal affair. The growth of cities and business, however, guaranteed
- [Prison and Plantation: Crime, Justice, and Authority in Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1767-1878](https://aslh.net/slh/prison-and-plantation-crime-justice-and-authority-in-massachusetts-and-south-carolina-1767-1878/) - Michael Stephen Hindus. Published July 1980. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 9-780-8078-1417-8. This broad, comparative study examines the social, economic, and legal contexts of crime and authority in two vastly different states over a one hundred year period. Massachusetts–an urban, industrial, and heterogeneous northern state–chose the penitentiary in its attempt
- [The Rule of Law: Albert Venn Dicey, Victorian Jurist](https://aslh.net/slh/the-rule-of-law-albert-venn-dicey-victorian-jurist/) - Richard A. Cosgrove. Published 1980 (Out of Print). Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 0-8078-1410-5. So commonplace has the term rule of law become that few recognize its source as Dicey’s Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution. Cosgrove examines the life and career of Dicey, the most
- [Underdevelopment and the Development of Law: Corporations and Corporation Law in Nineteenth-Century Colombia](https://aslh.net/slh/underdevelopment-and-the-development-of-law-corporations-and-corporation-law-in-nineteenth-century-colombia/) - Robert C. Means. Published October 1980, The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 9-780-8078-1423-9. Related Titles: Governing the Hearth: Law and the Family in Nineteenth-Century America (Aug 16, 1988) Michael Grossberg. Published August 1988. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-4225-6. Presenting a new framework for understanding the complex but vital
- [Sir Edward Coke and ‘The Grievances of the Commonwealth,’ 1621-1628](https://aslh.net/slh/sir-edward-coke-and-the-grievances-of-the-commonwealth-1621-1628/) - Stephen D. White. Published 1979. Order online through The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-0-8078-9807-9. A UNC Press Enduring Edition — UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original,
- [Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body, 1800-1976](https://aslh.net/slh/law-and-politics-the-house-of-lords-as-a-judicial-body-1800-1976/) - Robert Stevens. Published 1978, The Harvard University Press. Related Titles: The Development of Massachusetts Law, 1760-1830 (Apr 24, 1975) William E. Nelson. Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems (Apr 22, 1999) Raoul Berger. Published 1999. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674444782. The little understood yet volcanic power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is
- [The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860](https://aslh.net/slh/the-transformation-of-american-law-1780-1860/) - Morton Horwitz. Published 1977. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9-780-6749-0371-5. In a remarkable book based on prodigious research, Morton J. Horwitz offers a sweeping overview of the emergence of a national (and modern) legal system from English and colonial antecedents. He treats the evolution of the common law as intellectual history and
- [American Lawyers in a Changing Society: 1776-1876](https://aslh.net/slh/american-legal-profession-in-the-nineteenth-century/) - Maxwell H. Bloomfield. Published 1976, The Harvard University Press. Related Titles: The Development of Massachusetts Law, 1760-1830 (Apr 24, 1975) William E. Nelson. Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Body, 1800-1976 (Apr 24, 1978) Robert Stevens. Published 1978, The Harvard University Press. Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems (Apr 22, 1999) Raoul Berger.
- [Law and Politics in Jefferson’s Louisiana](https://aslh.net/slh/law-and-politics-in-jeffersons-louisiana/) - George F. Dargo. Published 1975, The Harvard University Press. Related Titles: American Legal Profession in the Nineteenth Century (Apr 24, 1976) Maxwell H. Bloomfield. Published 1976, The Harvard University Press. The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Apr 24, 1977) Morton Horwitz. Published 1977. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9-780-6749-0371-5. In a remarkable
- [The Development of Massachusetts Law, 1760-1830](https://aslh.net/slh/the-development-of-massachusetts-law-1760-1830/) - William E. Nelson. Related Titles: Law and Politics in Jefferson’s Louisiana (Apr 24, 1975) George F. Dargo. Published 1975, The Harvard University Press. Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance: England, Germany, France (Apr 22, 1974) John H. Langbein. Published 1974. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674184251. The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Apr 24,
- [Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance: England, Germany, France](https://aslh.net/slh/prosecuting-crime-in-the-renaissance-england-germany-france/) - John H. Langbein. Published 1974. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674184251. Related Titles: The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Apr 24, 1977) Morton Horwitz. Published 1977. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9-780-6749-0371-5. In a remarkable book based on prodigious research, Morton J. Horwitz offers a sweeping overview of the emergence
- [Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth](https://aslh.net/slh/executive-privilege-a-constitutional-myth/) - Raoul Berger. Published 1974. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9-780-6742-7425-9. Related Titles: Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems (Apr 22, 1999) Raoul Berger. Published 1999. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 9780674444782. The little understood yet volcanic power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is dissected through history by the nation’s leading legal
- [The Autobiographical Notes of Charles Evans Hughes](https://aslh.net/slh/the-autobiographical-notes-of-charles-evans-hughes/) - David J. Danelski, Joseph S. Tulchin. Published 1973. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0-6740-5325-0. Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) was lawyer, governor of New York, Supreme Court Justice, presidential candidate in 1916, Secretary of State in the Harding and Coolidge administrations, a member of the World Court, and Chief Justice of the United
- [Frederic William Maitland: A Life](https://aslh.net/slh/frederic-william-maitland-a-life/) - C.H.S. Fifoot. Published 1971. Order online through The Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0-6743-1825-0. Renowned as a great scholar, teacher, and legal historian, Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906) advanced the cause of legal history, opposing the idea that legal history was law and not history, yet believing in the advantage of legal training. He was Downing Professor

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