LAW 651 - The Resurgent Role of Legal History in Modern Judicial Decision-making Seminar

Spring (2-3) D Kelsey

Taught by Judge D. Arthur Kelsey of the Virginia Court of Appeals, this course examines the increasingly prominent role legal history plays in modern judicial decision-making and the jurisprudential factors that explain it. The class will survey recent U.S. Supreme Court and state cases decided primarily with historical reasoning, examine the cited historical sources directly, and consider academic praise and criticism of the judicial invocation of legal history all toward the goal of equipping students to confidently incorporate historical argument into their legal thinking as well as their future advocacy.