It was an honor to work with these contributors and our friends at The William and Mary Quarterly on this joint special issue. Early American historians and legal historians more generally will see how these essays offer a new methodological challenge to well-trod historiographical terrain.
Review Essay: Matthew Crow, Something Else: History, Legal Imagination, and the American Revolution
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
William J. Novak, Legislation, Regulation, and Administration in the American Revolution
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Donald F. Johnson, Popular Government and the Limits of the Law at the Outset of the American Revolution
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Jessica Chopin Roney, “They Are Their Citizens and Must Submit to Their Government”: Citizenship and the Creation of the Federal Government, 1776–1787
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Mark Valeri, The Tension between Religious Liberty and Religious Establishment in Revolutionary New England
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Sarah Barringer Gordon, Bringing the Law and the Local Back In to the Revolution
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Law & History Review is pleased to announce publication of our joint special issue with The William and Mary Quarterly: New Legal Histories of the American Revolution [vol. 44, no. 1, Feb., 2026]
Here is our table of contents with links.
ALL articles are open access ✅ and ready for download/view.
table of contents for Law and History Review's february 2026 special forum/issue, New Legal Histories of the American Revolution
👀 👀 👀
Out shortly ... our joint special forum with The William and Mary Quarterly:
New Legal Histories of the American Revolution
Contributions by Sarah Barringer Gordon, Mark Valeri, Jess Roney, Don Johnson, Matthew Crow, and William J. Novak
All open access ✅
Links soon!
It was a pleasure to review Reeju Ray's Placing the Frontier in British Northeast India: Law, Custom and Knowledge for Law and History Review @lawandhistrev.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
🚨 New Law & History Review article alert:
Weiwei Luo, "Beyond State/Market: Usury Law in Late-Ming China"
Open Access ✅
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
🚨 New Law & History Review article alert:
Matilde Cazzola and Sabarish Suresh, "The Trauma of Constitutions: Criminalising the Past in Italy and India"
Open Access ✅
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
#legalhistory
Law & History Review will publish (2026) a special issue on law, plebiscites and democracy, and we are pleased to announce the publication of one contribution: Lucia Rubinelli's study of 19th century British socialists reckoning with referendums and democracy.
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
Our own @simonatmadison.bsky.social’s latest article, “Taken Not Given: The End of Slavery in Britain” had just published in the @lawandhistrev.bsky.social and is Open Access! It explores the importance of self-liberation to ending slavery in Britain.
Link:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Out #OpenAccess on FirstView @lawandhistrev.bsky.social: 'Conspiracy, Crime, and Conflict in the Court of Star Chamber'. #StarChamber
"colonial officers and nationalists alike agreed to retain colonial security laws, especially the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance. The legacies of colonial law therefore remain prominent in Kenya's security legislation..."
🚨 New Law & History Review article alert:
Kyle Melles, "Kenya's Emergency Powers: Legal Continuities in the Post-Colonial State, 1959–1969"
Open Access ✅
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
📢New publication!! Out #openaccess FirstView: "Alien Acts in the Age of Emancipation: Mobility Control and Executive Power in the British Caribbean, 1820s–1830s," by Jan C. Jansen in Law and History Review @lawandhistrev.bsky.social. Access here doi.org/10.1017/S073.... Short summary in 🧵
my review of Lauren Benton's new book is out now in @lawandhistrev.bsky.social
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal... brand new must read on rape/raptus, virginity as a state of mind, and consent from Atria Larson @lawandhistrev.bsky.social @legalhistoryblog.bsky.social #medievalsky
🚨 New Law & History Review article alert:
Dennis J. Wieboldt III, "Ideas With(out) Consequences?: The Natural Law Institute and the Making of Conservative Constitutionalism During the Cold War, 1947–1951"
Open Access ✅
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
🚨 New Law & History Review article alert:
Jan C. Jansen, "Alien Acts in the Age of Emancipation: Mobility Control and Executive Power in the British Caribbean, 1820s–1830s"
Open Access ✅
doi.org/10.1017/S073...
We're searching for a new Editor-in-Chief! Please see Call for Applications:
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...
The ASLH Publications Committee invites applications for the position. Applicants should be members of the American Society for Legal History who are accomplished legal historians, have the intellectual range to work with manuscripts from different historical periods and geographic regions, are conversant with both law and history, and welcome the opportunity to identify and promote the best scholarship in the field. They should be prepared to request release time and other departmental or institutional support.
Big news! After 8 years of exemplary service, @gauthamrao.bsky.social is stepping down as editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social. The ASLH seeks applications for the next editor. Great opportunity, though Gautham's shoes will be hard to fill.
Details here:
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...
Lauren Davis Jarnach explores the 1910 Arizona constitutional convention and how the breakdown of parliamentary procedure had profound effects for democracy.
lawandhistoryreview.org/article/laur...
Dennis Wieboldt III's "Natural Law and the Study of “Conservative” Constitutionalism" previews a forthcoming article in Law and History Review that explores the history of the Natural Law Institute (NLI), during the mid-twentieth century.
lawandhistoryreview.org/article/denn...
Jonathan Connolly discusses his research process at the National Archives in London that led to his book, Worthy of Freedom: Indenture and Free Labor in the Era of Emancipation (University of Chicago Press, 2024)
lawandhistoryreview.org/article/jona...
We interview Simon Rabinovitch about his recent book Sovereignty and Religious Freedom: A Jewish History (Yale 2024), a comparative, global approach to telling the story of Jewish people’s pursuit of legal sovereignty over several centuries.
lawandhistoryreview.org/article/the-...