Our inattention to legal history is curious in many ways. First, lawyers as a
group more often than not are people who studied social science as
undergraduates. Indeed, the profession is full of people who majored in history
during college. In the course of earning their degrees, they likely learned a great
deal about the history of governments and wars, the history of social movements,
and the history of commerce. They probably did not learn much, however, about
the role of the legal profession or even the courts.1
Law schools give their
students a fair instruction in various substantive legal fields, but usually not a
great deal about the history of legal institutions. There are precious few
opportunities to learn it later.