In this Issue (March, 2020)

by Gautham Rao

Gautham Rao is Editor-in-Chief of Law and History Review and associate professor of history at American University in Washington, D.C.

Our first issue of 2020 sees some big changes.  We are sad to announce the departure from our team of Michan Connor, who has become the Editor of the History News Network.  In his time as editor of the Docket and as Associate Editor for Digital Projects for Law and History Review, Michan brought an ambitious vision and incredible perseverance.  He introduced many of the basic organizational systems that we continue to rely on.  He deserves enormous credit, not only for getting The Docket off the ground, but for keeping it going as well.  In short, we would have none of this were it not for Michan.  We will miss working with him but look forward to reading his work at HNN! 

2020 also brings a new look to Law and History Review!  We are very pleased with our new cover, which was designed by Richard Marshall.  We thank the immediate past president of the American Society for Legal History, Sarah Barringer Gordon, for making this possible, and Helene Appleyard and Chris Robinson of Cambridge University Press for their help incorporating the new cover.

This issue of The Docket features some exciting new work in the legal history community: an interview with Diana Kim about her new book, Empires of Vice; Carter Findley discusses his new book on Mouradgea d’Ohsson; R.B. Bernstein’s review of James Lewis’ new book about Aaron Burr, sir.  Laura Flannigan and Luke Taylor discuss their forthcoming articles in Law and History Review–both featuring really innovative approaches.  Sadie Jarrett explains how she uses early modern legal records to understand the Welsh gentry’s concept of the self.

We’ve also launched an initiative to help scholars who had planned to present their work at the 2020 annual conference of the Organization of American Historians in Washington, D.C.  Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 crisis, this conference was canceled.  We had planned to attend the OAH and provide twitter coverage of selected legal history panels.  Instead, we’ve opened up The Docket to any OAH panelist to present abstracts, papers, or any other discussion they’d like to make public.  This will be an ongoing project throughout 2020 and our first two submissions are by Gleb Aleksandrov and Natalie Shibley.