This Reading Group will meet two hours every other week to discuss the professor's book manuscript, entitled "Law's History: American Legal Thought and the Transatlantic Turn to History." The book places the turn to history in American legal thought following the Civil War in the broader context of the prevalence of historical explanation, in law and in other disciplines, in Europe and in the United States. This historical orientation challenges conventional accounts that emphasize "deductive formalism" and political conservatism as the main features of "classical legal thought" during the late nineteenth century. Because many of the American legal scholars covered in the book wrote about the early history of English law, this Reading Group should appeal to students interested in English legal history as well as in American legal history and the history of legal thought. Students will write two to three page essays for every other seminar meeting. Grading will be pass/fail.
Rabban, David M.