I'm afraid I didn't attend the Legal History sessions at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools earlier this month, but here, from the program, are two sessions sponsored by the Legal History Section (in the latter case, jointly with other sections).
Legal History of Capitalism. The legal history of capitalism has entered a new phase, following the rise of the new history of capitalism. Its focus on the evolution of the law creating, governing, and enabling the institutions of a market economy, indeed, including its very existence, has energized a new generation of legal historians. This session will attend to the work of young scholars, voices that have uncovered heretofore unseen aspects of the history of capitalism. Legal history is by its nature interdisciplinary, it discusses the sophisticated work of legal historians outside of the legal academy, the better to build intellectual and institutional bridges.
Session Speakers: Kevin R. Organization: Michigan State University College of Law; Gregory A. Mark, DePaul University College of Law (Moderator); Nadav Orian Peer, University of Colorado Law School; Sarah Winsberg, Brooklyn Law School.
The Uses and Misuses of History: The Roberts Court and Its Constitutional Revolution. The Roberts Court has embarked on a constitutional revolution using history to legitimate its authority. Sometimes the Courts conservative majority employs originalism, sometimes it invokes tradition, and sometimes it ignores originalism and tradition altogether. Critics charge that many of the Court's decisions are undermining democracy and civil rights, while supporters argue that the Court is restoring the Framers' Constitution. This program will discuss how lawyers, scholars, and judges use and misuse history. Our starting points will be Jack Balkin’s Memory and Authority: The Uses of History in Constitutional Interpretation (2024) and Jonathan Gienapp’s Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique (2024).
--Dan Ernst
