The (Fall/Winter 2023) issue of the California Supreme Court Historical Society Review is now available here. And here is the TOC:
Serranus Clinton Hastings: A Counterpoint on Culpability, by Kristian Whitten
The California Academy of Appellate Lawyers: A Half Century of Accomplishments, by Benjamin G. Schatz
Appreciations by Justice John A. Arguelles and Norman L. Epstein
On the Bookshelf: Stephen Field Reconsidered, by Bob Snider; Doing Well While Doing Good, by Hon. Joseph R. Grodin
California Legal History's New Editor, Justice George Nicholson
Legal History Winners recognized at Virtual Roundtable
The editor writes:
Our lead story continues a debate we began in our spring/summer issue over the legacy of Serranus Hastings, California's first chief justice and founder of what became UC Hastings College of the Law--a debate that should be of interest to historians well beyond California. As you may know, the California Legislature, following the recommendation of the school's board of directors, voted last year to drop Hastings' name from the school based on research into his involvement in the Indian massacres of the mid-19th century. Gov. Newsom approved the change, and the school has been renamed UC College of the Law, San Francisco. In our current issue, Kristian Whitten, a Hastings alum and retired California deputy attorney general, asserts that renaming the law school was unjustified and that Hastings has been accused of crimes he didn’t commit under the laws of the time, including murder and the theft of native lands. In our spring/summer issue, San Francisco attorney and historian John Briscoe detailed what he regards as the ample evidence of Hastings involvement in these massacres and appropriation. This debate over Serranus Hastings' culpability mirrors painful and ongoing conversations across the nation in recent years about how to weigh tradition against changing appraisals of our past.
Also in this issue, Benjamin Shatz, who leads appellate practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers with an account of this accomplished group of elite practitioners. The academy came together in the 1970s as an effort by the deans of the state’s appellate bar to encourage best practices and help address burgeoning caseloads, particularly in the California Court of Appeal. What its founders once jocularly called the “Appellate Lawyers Eating and Drinking Association” — the group coalesced over dinners at La Scala and Trader Vic’s, venerable Beverly Hills restaurants — has become an influential and respected force for significant improvements in appellate practice and judicial administration. And there's more in this issue.
Finally, we warmly welcome readers of this blog to solicit article ideas and suggestions of books to review. Is there a topic you're itching to write about? We're a place for shorter (1500-5000 words) articles on just about any subject involving our state's legal system and the men and women whose tragedies and triumphs built that system. Email me with your ideas at molly.selvin@gmail.com.
--Dan Ernst
