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Anna Johns at TLHS, Feb. 10

Please join us for the next meeting of the Triangle Legal History Seminar, this Friday, February 10, at the National Humanities Center from 4-6 pm.

Anna Johns Hrom, J.D., is a Ph.D. Candidate in the History Department at Duke University.  She will be presenting a chapter from her dissertation, "Through Tort Hell and Back: The Rise and Fall of the Consumer Class Action in Alabama," entitled "Alabama is Open for Business."

This chapter is a historical case study tracing the political battle over Alabama’s first comprehensive tort reform package.  A major component of this story is the rise of a new business lobbying group that sought to build a conservative “grassroots” social movement around the issue of tort reform.  This battle over tort reform would ultimately reshape both the state’s law and its political order.  This chapter is part of a larger dissertation project, "Through Tort Hell and Back: The Rise and Fall of the Consumer Class Action in Alabama," that explores the role of tort law in the broader consumer-protection regulatory ecosystem.

 Please find a copy of the paper as a Word document or as a PDF.

Email ashton.merck@duke.edu if you have any questions or need access to the paper.

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