The National Constitution Center and the Federal Judicial Center have announced a stellar Town Hall, to be held in person and online, Reconstruction and the Constitution: A Historical Perspective, Monday, February 10, 9:45–11:45 a.m. ET.  “Pamela Brandwein of the University of Michigan, Sherrilyn Ifill of Howard University School of Law, and Ilan Wurman…

[The second of the two essays in the exam for my legal history course is biographical.  (If you’d like to read prior ones, start here.)  This year, Carol Weiss King seemed like the obvious choice.  DRE]Carol Weiss King (CWK) was born on August 24, 1895, the youngest child of a well-to-do Jewish lawyer…

[We have the following CFP.  DRE.]Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, June 2-3, 2025, Harvard Law SchoolHarvard, Stanford, and Yale Law Schools are soliciting submissions for the 2025 Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, to be held at Harvard Law School on June 2-3, 2025. Twelve to twenty junior scholars (with one to seven years in teaching)…

[For the exam in my legal history class, I write an essay about some administrative regime that we did not cover but that developed in ways analogous to those that we did.  (I think of it as the historical equivalent of an “issue-spotter” hypothetical in a doctrinal law course.)  This year I chose the…

As an heir, through John Langbein when he taught at the University of Chicago, to the “Development of Legal Institutions” tradition in American Legal History, I was thrilled–really thrilled–by the publication of The Tradition of History at Harvard Law School, a note in the Harvard Law Review.  I may have some thoughts later,…

Alexander Zhang, the Legal History Fellow at the Yale Law School, has posted Fair Notice as a Sociopolitical Choice, which is forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal.This Article reframes deadlocked debate about “fair notice” as a justification for statutory
interpretation methods by developing a historical account of a crucial,
overlooked dimension:…

[We have the following announcement.  DRE]The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law plans to award Senior or Mid-career fellowships to scholars pursuing important topics in law, legal institutions, and social policy. Post-Doctoral fellowships are not currently available for 2025-2026 but should that change the application…