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I agree entirely with the wonderful and lucid introduction to this subject given by Christian Burset.  What I propose to do now is to make some brief observations which build upon the nature of Jim’s scholarship and to then highlight two aspects: (1)  on the importance of judicial biography; and (2) law reporting. 1.  A…

In my office, right by my desk, I have a “go-to shelf.”  This is a small collection of books that I refer to constantly.  Three volumes of Jim’s work are on it: the two volumes of The Mansfield Manuscripts and his book Trial by Jury: The Seventh Amendment and Anglo-American Special Juries.[1] Jim’s written work,…

In his contribution to these essays honoring Jim Oldham, Paul Halliday quoted Jim’s self-deprecating comment that “well, I’m not a real historian, I’m just a lawyer….” We would like to celebrate exactly that lawyerly aspect of Jim’s historical work. For he is not just an historian of juries and judges but also of commercial law…

I welcome the chance to give a brief evaluation of Jim Oldham’s ability as a scholar and to provide an example of what his scholarship has meant in my own work.  I welcome it, first because I have a high opinion of what he has contributed to our understanding of legal history.  His writing on…

I first met Jim Oldham twenty years ago, at a meeting of the ASLH. After I gave a paper, he introduced himself and asked if I might join him and others working on the cases concerning detention at Guantanamo Bay then wending their way through U.S. courts. That introduction changed my intellectual life in ways…

It’s an honor to help celebrate Professor Oldham’s long and fruitful career. My comments will focus, naturally, on the importance of his research. But I should also note his well-deserved reputation for generosity as a scholar. I first experienced his kindness when I was a graduate student, emailing him out of the blue to ask…

In 2020, James Oldham, the St. Thomas More Professor of Law and Legal History at the Georgetown University Law Center, took emeritus status after fifty years on the faculty.  Professor Oldham’s career as a legal historian commenced when, curious about the continued presence of Lord Mansfield in Contract casebooks, he devoted a sabbatical to locating…

The Mansfield Manuscripts and the Growth of English Law in the Eighteenth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 1992) English Common Law in the Age of Mansfield (University of North Carolina Press, 2004) 1. The Jury Trial by Jury: The Seventh Amendment and Anglo-American Special Juries (New York University Press, 2006) The Varied Life of…

In 1963 David Ogilvy published the iconic Confessions of an Advertising Man, described in the forward as “a slender but juicy book.”  Confessions included “commandments” or simple rules on how to get and keep clients, build “great campaigns,” and write “potent copy.”  After offering such profitable advice, Ogilvy ended the book on a very hesitant…