Legal History

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Session Type: Section Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: Hilton San Francisco Union Square

Room: Golden Gate 7

Floor: Lobby Level

Historically driven interpretive methods have figured particularly centrally in recent Supreme Court decisions on questions from the nature of unenumerated rights to the scope of presidential immunity. This panel will analyze the role played by historical analysis in these critical doctrinal areas and in constitutional interpretation more broadly. How does historical analysis differ across different doctrinal areas? What qualifies as history, and whose history, and what sources of evidence, matter? What are the dangers of relying on history as a source of law? How ought historians to engage with historical questions posed in law? The panel addresses these critical questions.