Colloquium: Law and History

This class will examine the relationship between law and history in two respects. First, we will examine related but distinct ways that law and history approach the reconstruction of past events using partial and conflicting evidence. Think of this as asking what judges and historians share and what separates them. Second, we will evaluate the history of law. How has law been treated as a topic of historical inquiry? What counts as law? Should it be studied on its own terms or contextually? Who matters? Legislators? Lawyers? Judges? Lay actors? To address these issues we will read broadly in the legal history of various context, Europe, the US, and the non-western world.