Top of page
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Today, December 15, is Bill of Rights Day, the 230th anniversary of the ratification of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. On this day in 1791, the Virginia General Assembly completed the ratification process for those amendments. Virginia’s ratification of the Bill of Rights fulfilled the requirement that federal constitutional amendments must …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Last year, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Compact, I wrote a post on this blog about the Compact’s origins and legacy in early American history. In that post, I wrote that the Compact served as a place-holder to acknowledge that the colonists were operating outside the region of North America that their …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
A few months ago, I highlighted on this blog two medieval manuscripts that the Law Library recently acquired. In this post, I would like to announce the acquisition of another new addition to the Law Library’s growing collection of medieval manuscripts, a remarkable 15th-century manuscript of L’Arbre des Batailles (The Tree of Battles) by the …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Not long ago, I wrote a post on this blog about the use of spectral evidence in a criminal trial. Spectral evidence was testimony in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them and did them harm in a dream or a vision. The Court of Oyez and Terminer that presided over the Salem …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Last September, I published a post on this blog about Joseph Story and the creation of Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, one of the most important legal publications of Antebellum America. This year, I thought I would continue along the same vein and highlight the Law Library’s holdings of items related …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Today is the 806th anniversary of the day King John of England committed to undertake the reforms that were enumerated in Magna Carta. King John granted Magna Carta to his barons on June 15, 1215, in order to halt their rebellion and to regain their support for his leadership. While Magna Carta was a document …
Posted in: Education, Event, In the News, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
Nathan discusses the life of Moses Levy, the first Jewish person to practice law in Pennsylvania.
Posted in: In the News, Jewish American History, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
On January 28, 2021, Foreign Law Specialist Nicolas Boring discussed the Napoleonic Code’s history, evolution, and legacy in an installment of the Law Library of Congress’ foreign and comparative law webinar series. The webinar discussed the prehistory of the French Civil Code, its drafting and adoption, its contents, and the history of its immense influence …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Event, Global Law, Law Library
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
This post was created with the assistance of Elizabeth Korres, Library Technician in the Law Library’s Global Legal Collection Directorate. Memorization is an inevitable part of studying law, and it has been for a very long time. To grapple with this, authors have tried to offer students strategies for memorization that will make learning the …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library