Due Process: The Georgetown Law Library Blog - Legal History

Rise of American Law Database Now Available on Westlaw

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:49:00 -0500

The Rise of American Law database is now active in our Westlaw subscription. Rise of American Law includes resources from 1840 to 1970 such as

national and state legal encyclopedias
treatises, casebooks, commentaries, and other practice materials
dictionaries (including the first three editions of Black's)
international materials from Great Britain, Latin American and the Philippines

If you’d like to browse this collection, click on the table of contents link (in the upper right corner) instead of searching to get a list of titles available. The text is searchable and PDF page images are available. A list of all of the titles included in the database is available.

We're working on getting these titles into the catalog, so you’ll soon begin to see them as results in a GULLiver search.

New English Legal History Materials

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:09:00 -0500

The Law Library has acquired a new database of English legal history materials from HeinOnline called Selden Society Publications & the History of Early English Law.

The Selden Society is devoted to the study of English common law and its legal system. Since the 19^th century, the Society has published original source materials, many which were previously unpublished, in its Annual Series. These materials include case reports, judges’ notes, treatises, and other legal documents, all published in full, along with translations to modern English.

The database contains all volumes of the Annual Series, from 1887 to 2000. It also contains the Society’s Supplementary Series (from 1965-2000), which includes legal history bibliographies, as well as some original source documents that were not published in the Annual Series.

Along with these official publications of the Society, the database also contains a collection of scholarly articles about English legal history, as well as the English Reports and Statutes of the Realm. We encourage members of the Law Center community to take a look at this valuable new resource.

New Legal History Encyclopedia

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:31:00 -0500

The Law Library has acquired the newly published Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History. This comprehensive, six-volume reference work covers U.S., international, and foreign legal subjects, tracing their development from ancient to modern periods. Like most subject-specific academic encyclopedias, the articles are written and signed by experts in the field, usually law professors (including several members of the GULC faculty), and they contain extensive cross-references and bibliographies.

The print version of the set is still being processed, but the Library has also purchased an online version which is available now. Please take a look at this valuable new resource.

New Scottish Legal History Online Exhibit

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:55:00 -0500

The library has a new online exhibit that features resources on celebrated early modern criminal trials in Scotland, including the trials of Rob Roy's sons and two women, Katharine Nairn Ogilvie and Madeleine Hamilton Smith. All of the materials except the Twelve Scots Trials are available in the Special Collections Department at the Georgetown Law Library.

For further resources and materials on Scottish legal history, please consult the Georgetown Law Library's new guide to Scottish Legal History.

Presidents and the Law Center

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:32:00 -0500

Many presidents and presidential candidates have connections to Georgetown Law. Stop by the new exhibit near the Rare Books Reading Room (in the Reading Room at the Williams Library) to learn more about these connections.

Law Center Archivist Heather Bourk and Erin Rahne Kidwell, Special Collections Assistant, created the display.

Chief Justice Speaks About Legal Research

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:44:53 -0500

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts delivered an address at Drake University Law School last Thursday, in which he discussed the history of legal publishing and research, as well as the limits and misuses of computer-based legal research tools, and their impact on the practice of law.

Radio Iowa has an article about the speech, as well as a 30-minute audio file, which is available for download.

Happy 100th Birthday, Thurgood!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:24:18 -0500

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's 100th birthday is today, July 2, 2008.

These books are available (some electronically) to help you celebrate:

Juneteenth--Black Independence Day

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:04 -0500

June 19th is celebrated as Black Independence Day--the day that Black residents of Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom in 1865. The day has come to be known as Juneteenth, and is celebrated throughout the United States.

The Root, Henry Louis Gates' web site, has a good Primer on Black Independence Day. You can also come to the library and check out and read Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth.

You might also find the following titles interesting--they approach the issues of slavery and freedom from unique perspectives: Rebels, Reformers, & Revolutionaries: Collected Essays and Second Thoughts; Wounds of Returning: Race, Memory, and Property on the Postslavery Plantation; and Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America. These are just some of the many resources our library offers on slavery and emancipation. Find more using GULLiver.

A "trifecta" of USSCT decisions in international law and we're Loving it

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:29:24 -0500

Early this morning an NPR commentator marked today as the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010
(U.S.Va. Jun 12, 1967), reversing convictions for violating a state ban on interracial marriage. We are a freer people.
Likewise today the historic ruling in Boumediene v. Bush.
"that the petitioners at GTMO have a constitutional right to petition for habeas corpus and that the DTA/MCA process of D.C. Circuit review from CSRT decisions is not an adequate alternative to habeas."
In addition to this ruling in Boumediene, which is filled with the results of some clarified British legal history research that warms the heart of any curator of historical materials, the court also handed down The Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel (re to determine ownership of funds allegedly misappropriated by Ferdinand Marcos
during his reign as Philippine president) and Munaf (US Citizens can challenge their detentions in Iraq).
Mark Wojcik called it a "trifecta" on the International Law Prof Blog, but his links go via Cornell and are interposed with a plea for a donation to LII. Most worthwhile, but unless you are a son or daughter of Cornell, today may not be the day you want to pause. All are posted at ScotusBlog, nudge-free.

and there will be an "Insta-Symposium" on Boumediene, as annouced at Opinio Juris.

New Civil Rights Digital Library

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:47:16 -0500

The University of Georgia's new Civil Rights Digital Library provides organized access to the resources of nearly 100 digital collections to provide a single source for online civil rights research.

The excellent interface allows browsing (Events, People, Places, Topics, Collections) and searching of the collections. There are articles, photographs, legal and government documents, moving images, posters, broadsides and other sources (see the complete list of media types). The collections of the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland, the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas, Yale Law School, and the Virginia Center for Digital History Information at U.Va. are just a few of those included (click here to see more).

Historical Congressional Record Now Online

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:13:43 -0500

Portions of the Congressional Record that have never been online are now available on HeinOnline. Currently, volumes 1-69 (1873-1928) and 121-182 (1975-2007) are online and fully searchable.

For the first time, legal researchers can use online searching techniques to analyze congressional debates on legal topics that are still relevant today such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Ethics in Government Act.

Hein is adding more volumes of the Congressional Record; soon congressional debates on other ground-breaking legislation such as ERISA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Voting Rights Act will be available.

Georgetown users can access the Congressional Record online from anywhere. Newer volumes of the Congressional Record (1994 forward) are freely available from GPO Access, while a few of the first volumes are freely available online from the Library of Congress.

PRINCE AMONG SLAVES airs tonight on PBS

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:06:32 -0500

Two Washington-area PBS Networks will broadcast Prince Among Slaves beginning Monday, February 4, as part of the organization's Black History Month programming. The one-hour program begins at 10pm on WETA, Channel 26, and MPT, Channel 22, and will be re-aired throughout the month.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.

News from the Other, Older Empire

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:37:00 -0500

This week brings out two new sources in my my favorite comparative law research area: Roman Law (ancient, that is), one new and one newly blogged-about. The new one is the Annotated Justinian Code web site, up and running at which was announced to the law library community this week. It was created and edited by Timothy Kearley, Director of the Law Library & Centennial Distinguished Professor of Law, George W. Hopper Law Library, University of Wyoming. The newly-discovered (by the Yellow Show Civil Law Blog but already in our links in preparation for a civil law research guide, under construction) site is Roman Law sponsored by the Université Pierre-Mendès-France Grenoble, in the original Latin, but also it contains translations of these resources in English, French, and Spanish.