Triangle Legal History Seminar

We have finalized the spring schedule of presentations, which are as follows (paper titles are tentative). All meetings will take place from 4-6pm at the National Humanities Center. February 10: Anna Johns, "Consumer Protection and Tort Reform: A Case Study of Alabama" Anna Johns, J.D., is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at Duke University.  She will be workshopping a chapter from her dissertation, "Through Tort Hell and Back: The Rise and Fall of the Consumer Class Action in Alabama." February 24: Rebecca Scott, Professor of History and Law, University of Michigan - "Luisa Coleta and the Capuchin Friar: The Final Sacraments behind a Suit for Freedom" Rebecca Scott is Professor of History and Law, University of Michigan, and visiting professor at Duke Law School for Spring 2017.  She will be presenting new research on early nineteenth-century Cuba. April 21: Mandy Cooper, Ph.D. Candidate, Duke University - "The Family State: Famil

Please join us for the next meeting of the Triangle Legal History Seminar, next Friday, Nov. 4, at the National Humanities Center from 4-6 pm. Emiliano Corral (J.D. Ph.D., Duke Sanford School of Public Policy) will present his paper, "The Ending of the Convict Lease Program by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI) in the Birmingham (AL) District: An Institutional Analysis".  Please find a copy of the paper here . Email ashton.merck@duke.edu if you have any questions.

This is a reminder that  Paul Babie, Professor and Associate Dean, Adelaide Law School, Australia and  John Orth of UNC's law school will be presenting a lunchtime program on the Torrens system on November 7 at UNC Law's faculty lounge .  The program, entitled " Property Stories: How Torrens Title Failed to Solve All the Problems, and Actually Created Some,"  is as follows:   The Prisoners of Adams Creek: Family, Race, Adverse Possession, and Torrens Title in North Carolina – John Orth Beginning in 2002, litigation in Carteret County that began as a family quarrel has sent North Carolina lawyers scrambling to understand Torrens Title, has raised uncomfortable questions about the collision between race and the Progressive attempt to simplify land titles, and has led to the years-long imprisonment of two African-American men for contempt.   Adams Creek Assocs. v. Davis, 746 S.E.2d 1 (N.C. Ct. App.), disc. rev. denied, 748 S.E.2d 322 (N.C. 2013); Buck v. Davis,

We are very much looking forward to John Wertheimer and his students presenting on October 21.   They will be presenting on  " State  v.  Posey : Criminal  Bargains  between  the  Enslaved  and  their Enslavers."   This will be in Chapel Hill at UNC's law school in 5001 (aka "The Boardroom").  Please note that this is NOT our usual location. This is our fall break, so campus will be pretty quiet that afternoon.  And we're expecting a beautiful fall afternoon to talk legal history.  We'll be circulating the paper soon. If you'd like parking, please let me know.   Here is a link to directions and two maps that show the Route 54 parking lot and the UNC Law School. The illustration is Eumenean Hall on the Davidson College campus. The paper can be accessed by seminar participants through this link . (Please contact Ashton Merck awb27@duke.edu for the password to the file if you are not already on the seminar listserv)

The next official meeting of the Triangle Legal History Seminar will take place next Friday, October 7th, in a rare opportunity to join forces with the Triangle Global British History Seminar and the Triangle Early American History Seminar.   Lisa Ford, from the University of New South Wales, will present her paper, entitled "The King’s Peace and the Imperial Constitution: Boston, 1764-1770." Please write to Ashton Merck (awb27@duke.edu) for access to the paper.

It is my pleasure to announce that Paul Babie , professor of law and associate dean at Adelaide University, Australia, and my UNC colleague John Orth will both by speaking at lunchtime on November 7 at UNC Law, on the Torrens title system.  The title of their program is “Property Stories: How Torrens Title Failed to Solve All the Problems, and Actually Created Some.” Babie's talk is entitled "The Carey Gulley Squatter: Crown and Possessory Title of Torrens Land in South Australia." You may have heard that Babie gave one of the best of the talks at the North Carolina Law Review 's terrific symposium on Magna Carta last fall.  And that's really saying something because those talks were fabulous. Babie asked the intriguing question, why did do we remember Magna Carta but not other charters from that era. He focused on the forest charter, for instance, of 1217.  And then he also unfolded how that charter has other implications for progressive property.  I can

Please join us for a discussion of David Gilmartin's paper "Voting and Party Symbols in India" on Friday, September 9, from 4-6 pm at the National Humanities Center.  Light refreshments will be served. Voting and Party Symbols in India:  The Visual and the Law in Constituting the Sovereign People Abstract: The establishment and legal regulation of voting practices provides a critical window for analyzing the distinctive meanings attached to the people’s sovereignty as an operative force in electoral democracies.   In India, this is evident in the controversies that have surrounded the use of officially-sanctioned party electoral symbols in election campaigns.   Originally adopted after India’s independence to facilitate voting by a largely illiterate population, symbols have since come to play critical roles as party logos.  But their practical use and “misuse” has sparked considerable controversy, raising questions both about the role of visual im

John Wertheimer of Davidson College -- and one of our nation's premier legal historians -- will be presenting with some of his students to the Triangle Legal History Seminar on October 21 at UNC Law School.  John has for many years taught an innovative seminar for advanced history students in which the class picks a single case to study intensely.  They have a competitive process at the beginning of the semester where each student searches the appellate reports (often from the nineteenth century and from the Carolinas) and then presents the case to the class.  The class then picks what they want to study and they break the case into parts for groups of the, to further investigate.  Students research the background of the parties, the record below, the context in the community, how the case relates to prior -- and subsequent -- judicial decisions.  They write an article, collectively, over the course of the semester.  And towards the end they paper with a legal historian from ano

Welcome to the Triangle Legal History Seminar's new webpage.  I'm delighted that -- thanks to Ashton Merck 's talent and energy -- we have a new blog for the Triangle Legal History Seminar.  By way of background, Ed Balleisen founded the Triangle Legal History Seminar back in 2006 under the umbrella of the Carolina Seminars Program .  And he ran it -- along with a rotating set of co-convenors, including Adrienne Davis, Laura Edwards, and Jonathan Ocko -- until last year, when he entered the provost's office at Duke . We currently have four conveners -- Al Brophy of UNC, Emiliano Corral of Duke, D avid Gilmartin of NC State , and Ashton Merck of Duke.  And we are in the process of putting together an exciting schedule for this year.  We typically meet once a month, on Fridays at the National Humanities Center .  But in recent years we've branched out to other meeting spots around the Triangle. Our website was hosted at Duke Law School for many years -- and the

If you are interested in presenting at the Triangle Legal History Seminar this coming year (2016-2017), please write to us at the addresses below as soon as possible.  Please let us know the tentative title of your talk and a brief abstract, along with the anticipated time when your paper will be ready for workshopping (e.g. fall, spring, November, April, etc.). We welcome papers from all time periods and geographic areas that pertain to legal history, broadly defined to include the study of institutions and legal structures.  We welcome papers from persons originating in a variety of disciplines - those based in departments other than history or law are welcome to send us their work for consideration. We hope to hear from you soon. Best, Triangle Legal History Seminar 2016-2017 Organizers Al Brophy  ( abrophy@email.unc.edu ) Emiliano Corral  ( corral.emiliano@gmail.com ) David Gilmartin  ( david_gilmartin@ncsu.edu ) Ashton Merck  ( ashton.merck@du