LAW 401—American Legal History

This course focuses on significant themes and developments in American legal history between 1900 and 1960. It addresses major changes in constitutional law, common law, statutory law, legal theory, and the legal profession as they intersect with, and are spurred by, broader transformations in American society, politics, and culture. In addition to substantive coverage of historical material, we will also explore the emerging field of legal history. Legal history is a relatively new area of scholarship, one that overlaps with the more established and well-known academic disciplines of doctrinal legal studies (taught primarily in law schools), and social and political history, but that is distinct in its methodologies, areas of inquiry, and foundational assumptions. We will explore what eminent legal historians have to say about the boundaries of this field and how the study of legal history can help us understand the past as well as the present and future of American law, policy, and the legal system.