Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Legal History Survival Guide, pt 2: helpful sources for getting started on law and foreign relations history

In the Legal History Survival Guide at the end of my draft on Legal History as Diplomatic History, I'm listing sources with especially good bibliographies, bibliographic essays, sources cited in footnotes, etc.  Here's my current list:

Works with helpful bibliographies and bibliographic essays:
  • Lauren Benton, A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
  • Martti Koskenniemi, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law, 1870-1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
  • Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003)
  • Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010)
  • Stephen C. Neff, Justice Among Nations: A History of International Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014)
  • A.W. Brian Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Works with extensive and helpful citations in the notes:
  • George Athan Billias, American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776-1989: A Global Perspective (New York: New York University Press, 2009)
  • Stephen M. Griffin, Long Wars and the Constitution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013)
  • Mariah Zeisberg, War Powers: The Politics of Constitutional Authority (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013)
Helpful reference sources:
  •  David L. Sloss, Michael D. Ramsey, and William S. Dodge, eds., International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2011)
  • David P. Forsythe, ed., Encyclopedia of Human Rights, 5 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009)
Excellent overview of Foreign Relations Law:
  • Curtis A. Bradley, International Law in the U.S. Legal System (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)
The best source for access to legal documents relating to law and diplomatic history:

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Crowdsourcing cite on the History of Foreign Relations Law as Administrative Law

In the essay I'm writing about legal history as diplomatic history, I have this short passage noting that a lot of the law pertaining to U.S. international affairs consists of federal regulations. Title 10 of the U.S. Code pertaining to the armed forces is just one aspect. But foreign relations law sources (at least that I've checked so far) don't cover administrative law, and my research is not turning up helpful works.  So I thought I should crowdsource my cites for this. Since my goal is to cite to sources that graduate students and other non-legal historians can start with in an effort to bring legal history into their work, can you recommend helpful works?  Here's the paragraph:
Battles over the Treaty of Versailles and the National Security Act of 1947 do more than showcase the way American political leaders fought over the direction of U.S. foreign policy. Statutes and treaties become the legal architecture of statebuilding. The National Security Act did more than ratify a vision of American national security.  It restructured the military and created new departments.  The resulting Department of Defense has grown to a sprawling bureaucracy with over 3.2 million employees, and drawing approximately 19% of the federal budget, though this number does not include veterans benefits. Although the statute itself, and subsequent amendments, create the basic organization of federal bureaucratic power, it also lays the basis for new forms of lawmaking. Much of the law of U.S. foreign relations since 1947 is administrative law generated by federal rulemaking. Because of this, the legal history of American foreign relations is not limited to treaties, statutes and court rulings. Administrative law is foreign relations law. Diving into this regulatory history would illuminate the legal side of the bureaucratic history of foreign relations.
Please post your ideas in the comments or email me. My readers will thank you!

Legal History Survival Guide, part 2: bibliographies on law in foreign relations history

For my essay on legal history as diplomatic history, which includes tips for the uninitiated, I have this list of good bibliographic sources. Can you add to it?
Researchers will find very helpful bibliographies and bibliographic essays in Martti Koskenniemi, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations; Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights; Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia; Stephen C. Neff, Justice Among Nations and A.W. Brian Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention. See also extensive and helpful citations in the notes of George Athan Billias, American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World; Stephen M. Griffin, Long Wars and the Constitution; and Mariah Ziesberg, War Powers: The Politics of Constitutional Authority. International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court, edited by David L. Sloss, Michael D. Ramsey and William S. Dodge; and the five volume Encyclopedia of Human Rights, edited by David P. Forsythe, are also excellent references. The best source for access to legal documents relating to law and diplomatic history is The Avalon Project Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, hosted by the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School.

Friday, July 11, 2014

A legal history survival guide

For an essay on legal history as diplomatic history for the 3rd edition of Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, I close with some tips about how a non-legal historian might venture into legal history. Here's my list. What am I missing?
Building legal history into your diplomatic history research may be important or essential. It can also be fraught with peril. Historians without legal training can make mistakes when unaware of the way different areas of law interconnect, or the way jurisdictional or procedural rules affect a case. But even complex areas of law can be mastered sufficiently.

Here are some guidelines to help you bring law into your project without making mistakes:
  • Audit a law school class in your subject area. Do all the reading and participate in class discussion.
  • To develop an overview of an area of law, find a well-regarded treatise.
  • Ask a legal historians to be on your dissertation committee.
  • Attend meetings of the American Society for Legal History.
  • Present your work in law settings, including at ASLH  and Law and Society Association meetings. Find opportunities for legal scholars to read your work and comment on it.
  • Attend legal history workshops and programs in your area. Some law schools have legal history workshop series. They will be delighted to have you.
  • Take advantage of legal history programs for graduate students and others hosted by ASLH and others.
  • Read the Legal History Blog, where new scholarship is discussed and opportunities are often announced.