The legal history or the history of law is the study of how law started, evolved and the reasons for the various changes in the law. Moreover, the law as a system of guidelines and rules that are carried out by institutions or people has been connected to the development of civilisations.
The topical outline of the legal history is arranged according to the laws of the ancient world in Western Asia, Southern Asia and East Asia; the laws in ancient Europe especially the Roman Empire; the laws in Europe during the Middle Ages; the laws in modern Europe; and the laws in the United States and Canada. For example, the history of Babylonian law during the reign of King Hammurabi is a good theme for the law essay on legal history.
If we lawyers tend to overlook the evolution of substantive law, then we can be downright unconscious about legal institutions and legal practice.
The history of the legal profession is one replete with landmarks in the advancement of American society. Lawyers and judges in this state and others led the fight against slavery in the last century and the fight against segregation in this century. Lawyers and judges opened up the democratic system by bringing cases like Baker v. Carr. Our profession helped create modern prosperity in business and industry by developing reliable commercial rules and agreements, enforceable across state lines and even national boundaries. We created the tools with which modern America has made so much progress in cleaning up the environment. We are a major force in the protection of children and others unable to care for themselves.
In short, the profession’s contributions to substantive law and America’s institutions are worth memorializing, worth remembering, and worth praising. We owe it to the profession and to our fellow citizens to record the best of that story. This symposium is a splendid way to do that.