Legal History Workshop Archive

The Legal History Workshop, presented by Professors Martha Jones and William Novak, features presentations by leading scholars from around the country who work in this interdisciplinary field. Presentations will focus on legal developments in social, political, intellectual, and cultural context, exploring a range of substantive and methodological questions arising in the course of legal-historical work.

Winter 2012 Schedule

TOPIC I: THEORY AND METHOD
January 31, 2012
Michael Vorenberg, Brown University
"Birth, Belief, and Blood: Allegiance, Law, and the American Civil War"

TOPIC II: LAW AND CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE WELFARE STATE
February 14, 2012
Chris Schmidt, Chicago-Kent Law School
"Divided by Law: The Sit-Ins, Legal Ambiguity, and the Role of the Courts in the Civil Rights Movement"

February 21, 2012
Nick Parillo, Yale Law School
"Against the Profit Motive: The Transformation of American Government, 1780-1940"

March 6, 2012
Sophia Lee, Penn Law School
"The Workplace Constitution: Race, Labor, and Conservative Politics from the New Deal to the New Right"

March 13, 2012
Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School
"Civil Liberties After 1937—The Justices and the Theories"

TOPIC III: EARLY LEGAL HISTORY
March 20, 2012
Adriaan Lanni, Harvard Law School
"Law and Order in Classical Athens"

March 27, 2012
John Hudson, University of St. Andrews/Michigan Law

April 3, 2012
Veronica Santarosa, Michigan Law
"Financing Long-Distance Trade Without Banks: The Joint Liability Rule and Bills of Exchange in 18th-Century France"

April 10, 2012
Sara McDougall, CUNY/John Jay College
"Husbands, Wives, and Adultery in Late-Medieval France"

Fall 2010 schedule

LAW, RACE, SLAVERY & RECONSTRUCTION
September 20, 2010
Pamela Brandwein
University of Michigan, Department of Political Science

September 27, 2010
Ariela Gross
University of Southern California School of Law

September 30, 2010
Eric Foner
Columbia University, Department of History

LAW, WAR, EMPIRE
October 11, 2010
Lauren Benton
New York University, Department of History

October 25, 2010
Sam Erman
U.S. Supreme Court Clerk

November 1, 2010
Christopher Capozzola
MIT Department of History

November 8, 2010
John Witt
Yale Law School

CRITICAL THEORY AND HISTORY
November 22, 2010
Serena Mayeri
University of Pennsylvania Law School

November 29, 2010
David Garland
NYU Law School

December 6, 2010
Robert Gordon
Yale University Law School