Program in Law and History | College of Law

Overview

The University of Iowa has a proud tradition of scholarship and teaching in the field of legal history. Among the many legal historians who have taught at the University of Iowa are Professors Percy Bordwell (d. 1970), Donald Sutherland (d. 1986), and Henry Horwitz (emeritus 2004), and Mary Dudziak (now at USC Law School). Legal historians now at the University of Iowa College of Law include Herbert Hovenkamp (who holds the Willie Chair in legal history), Lea VanderVelde, Carolyn Jones, Linda Kerber, and Thomas Gallanis (see profiles below). The Program in Law and History, founded in its current form in 2009, builds on this tradition by bringing together faculty and students to foster teaching and research and/or teaching at the intersection of law and history.

For an article on the Program, click here.

_{back to top}

Events

The Program in Law and History will host the following events:

Donald W. Sutherland Memorial Lecture in Legal History
The Lecture honors the memory of Donald W. Sutherland, the late Carver Professor of History and Law at the University of Iowa.

The inaugural Sutherland Lecture was given in 2011 by Professor Thomas P. Gallanis of the University of Iowa, on the topic - The Evolution of the Common Law. A video podcast in .mp4 format is available here.

We are delighted to announce that the next Sutherland Lecture will be given by Professor Linda Colley CBE, who holds the Shelby M.C. Davis 1958 Professorship in the Department of History at Princeton University. Professor Colley will deliver the lecture at a date to be determined in Fall 2014.

_{back to top}

Faculty

The Program in Law and History includes the following faculty, in alphabetical order, with their fields of research in legal history:

Randall Bezanson
Constitutional history; history of the freedom of the press
Arthur Bonfield
History of publishing and free speech in early modern England
William Buss
History of American influence on the Australian constitution
Lois Cox
Notable American trials of the 20th century
Ann Estin
History of the family; history of gender
Thomas Gallanis
English legal history; Continental European legal history; history of procedural law
N. William Hines
History of the Iowa law school; history of legal education
Herbert Hovenkamp
History of American law and economic thought
Carolyn Jones
History of taxation in America
Linda K. Kerber
History of women/gender and the law
Michael E. Moore
Medieval canon law; medieval kingship and political culture
Angela Onwuachi-Willig
History of anti-miscegenation statutes; history of the multiracial family
Jacki Rand
Federal Indian policy and law
John Reitz
Continental and comparative legal history; history of institutions relating to the rule of law
Alexander Somek
Constitutional history; history of legal scholarship
Ahmed Souaiaia
Islamic legal history
Elke Stockreiter
Islamic law and gender in colonial and post-colonial Africa
Lea VanderVelde
American women's legal history; history of slavery; frontier history
Gerald Wetlaufer
Theories of law and systems of belief in 20th century American law

_{back to top}

Joint Degree Program

At Iowa, JD students are able to develop joint degree programs with most graduate colleges and departments in the University. The cross-crediting feature of the joint degree program allows students to receive the JD and another graduate/professional degree by taking 12 to 24 hours (equivalent to one or two semesters) less course work than would be necessary if the two degrees were pursued independently. For more information on the Joint Degree Program, click here.

_{back to top}

Library Resources in Legal History

The Rare Book Room in the Library of the College of Law houses rare and irreplaceable books, manuscripts, and special collections. The Law Library owns two significant antiquarian collections. The first is the Leist collection, consisting of German, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Canon Law volumes. The Law Library purchased the 3,000 volume Leist Collection in 1920.

The second rare book collection is from the estate of William Gardiner Hammond, the first Chancellor (Dean) of the University of Iowa College of Law. The Hammond Historical Collection contains about 1,200 volumes of early English and civil law materials.

The Rare Book Room is located on the Law Library's third floor, and provides special climate control and fire protection for its priceless contents.

For more information, click here.

_{back to top}

Links

The following links are to legal history web pages outside the University of Iowa.

Searchable Primary Sources

Anglo-American Legal Tradition (AALT)
Bracton on the Laws and Customs of England
British Tracts, 17th-19th Centuries (University of Missouri)
Bureau of Land Management: General Land Office Records
Harvard Law Library Digital Collections
Henry III Fine Rolls
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties
Justinian's Code Annotated (University of Wyoming)
London Lives 1690-1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy
Official U.K. Legislation 1267-Present
Old Bailey Sessions Papers
Seipp’s Abridgement of Year Book Cases
St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records
Triangle Legal History Seminar: Legal History on the Web
U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875
Yale Law School Avalon Project