We have the following (very exciting) announcement from the American Journal of Legal History and Oxford University Press:
[The journal and Press] are delighted to announce the appointment of Prof. Felice Batlan as Co-Editor in Chief. She joins Stefan Vogenauer, Director at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt, who has been the Co-Editor in Chief since 2016.
Prof Batlan is a Professor of Law at IIT- Chicago-Kent College of Law in Chicago, where she specializes in 19th and 20th century U.S. legal history and women in the legal profession. Her book Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863-1945 won the Hurst Prize for the best book in legal history in 2016. Prof. Batlan’s work has appeared in numerous law reviews and history journals, and she recently completed a five-year term as book review editor for the Americas for Law and History Review.
Prof. Batlan commented that her knowledge of U.S. legal history will blend perfectly with Prof. Vogenauer’s expertise in European legal history and comparative law. Both intend to continue to maintain the high quality of scholarship published by AJLH and ensure that the Journal publishes works by younger scholars in emerging fields, as well as works that are international, comparative, and transnational. Prof. Batlan stated, “I am thrilled for this opportunity to help shape the field of legal history. I have an expansive understanding of what legal history encompasses and how much we still need to learn about how law has shaped ordinary people’s lives as well about how people who have often been on the margins shaped law through on the ground action.” Prof. Batlan is replacing Alfred Brophy, who has stepped down due to ill health, and whose vision, wisdom, and energy relaunched the journal in 2016.
The AJLH was first published in 1957 and was the first English-language periodical in the field.
The full press release can be found here.-- Karen Tani
