Legal History Matter

As a field of study, legal history has an unsteady place in Australian law schools yet academic research and writing in the field of legal history and at the intersections of the disciplines of 'law' and 'history' is undergoing something of a renaissance, with rich and vibrant new works regularly appearing in specialist journals and scholarly monographs.

This collection seeks to reinvigorate the study of history within the law school curriculum, by showcasing what students of the law can achieve when, addressing topics from the use of Magna Carta as history and precedent in sixteenth-century England to the political manoeuvres behind the failed impeachment of President Bill Clinton in late twentieth-century America, they seek to understand legal processes and institutions historically.

The volume comprises outstanding legal history papers authored by graduate (final year JD) students in the Melbourne Law School.

This collection is dedicated to two women who championed the teaching of legal history at the Melbourne Law School in the 1960s-Dr Ruth Campbell and Mrs Betty Hayes.

About the Authors

Amanda Whiting is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School. Her scholarly research and teaching traverses the disciplines of History and Law, with particular focus on early-modern English history, and the legal profession and law reform in post-colonial Malaysia.

Ann O'Connell is Professor at Melbourne Law School. Her scholarly research and teaching interests include taxation generally as well as taxation of not-for-profits; and not-for profits and the law.