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Posted by: Nathan Dorn
As part of its comprehensive collection development objectives, the Law Library of Congress collects the laws of nations of the world, including historic works that document the earliest layers of those nations’ legal heritage. A recent acquisition for the Law Library’s Rare Book Collection captures one such moment in the history of the laws of …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
In a post last month, I highlighted a document that the Law Library acquired for its rare book collection: a sea letter signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in 1794 for the schooner Two Friends. In that post, I mentioned the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. In this post, I …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
In recent posts, I have pointed out that while the Law Library’s rare books collection is in principle a collection of printed books, we sometimes have the good fortune to acquire unique documents created by important Americans in the course of their public careers. One example of these was a document signed by two 17th-century …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
One of last year’s noteworthy additions to the Law Library’s rare book collection was a 15th-century manuscript of the canons and constitutions of the archdiocese of the province of Zaragoza, Spain. This item’s acquisition expands the Law Library’s collection of manuscripts, a collection that has been growing in recent years. It includes more than 60 …
Posted in: Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan Dorn describes a new acquisition - the Henry Clay draft of Article IX of the Treaty of Ghent.
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Native Americans
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
In today's blog post, rare book librarian Nathan discusses David Hoffman, an early American legal educator who taught a natural law inflected jurisprudence.
Posted in: Collections, Education, Event
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan discusses Henry Carey Lea, an independent scholar who by himself was an era in American Medieval Studies
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
“There are two motives that have induced me to prefix a few lines by way of preface to the reader of the ensuing book. One is, that it is generally expected, and a book seems to come naked into the world without a preface; tho’ sometimes little or nothing to the purpose: but since custom …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan discusses trial by ordeal and the dangers of too much judicial combat in the works of Friedrich Majer
Posted in: Collections, Law Library