Continuing our round-up of the prizes and award announced at the recent meeting of the American Society for Legal History, we turn now to the Surrency Prize. About the prize:
The Surrency Prize is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous year. The prize is named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History.
This year's award went to Esther Sahle (Freie Universität Berlin), for “Legal Pluralism, Arbitration, and State Formation: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Quaker Court, 1682–1772,” Law and History Review 41:4 (2023): 653-681. The citation:
Esther Sahle’s “Legal Pluralism, Arbitration, and State Formation: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Quaker Court, 1682–1772” combines an ingenious reading of archival records, an elegant analytical framework and a lucid, layered narrative. The result is an article of far-reaching insight. Examining the 284 disputes arbitrated over ninety years at Philadelphia’s monthly Quaker meetings, Sahle traces how—in procedure, subject matter and enforcement—the Quakers’ dispute resolution system functioned as a forum typical of contemporary Atlantic legal fori. This new understanding leads to others. Readers learn that the Quaker arbitration system, rather than a static practice explained by religious commitments, evolved in relation to the reliability of Pennsylvania’s public courts. Friends used their forum to enforce contracts, a community legal process that delivered commercial advantages amid political turbulence and state incapacity. Readers also learn how and why this community forum declined as official courts became more dependable, financial relationships with non-Quakers grew and the practicability of information-based enforcement declined. Friends increasingly took their business to the colonial state, strengthening it in the process. This story offers a novel view of the dynamics of legal pluralism, state-building, and economic change—notably, one arising not from official sources but rather from the activities of colonizing subjects in British North America. In its methods and analysis, Sahle’s article offers important lessons for legal historians working across geographies, empires and eras.
Congratulations to Professor Sahle!
-- Karen Tani
