Law was critical to the establishment and growth of American slavery. Judges authored thousands of appellate opinions on the subject, yet the influence of these cases remains underappreciated. This program will explain how the law of slavery was constructed, why modern American judges continue to rely on slave cases and principles derived from them, and how legal research tools and methods have led to this reliance on the law of slavery.
Speaker Bio: Justin Simard is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Michigan State University College of Law. At MSU he teaches Professional Responsibility, Commercial Law, and legal history and directs the Citing Slavery Project and the Kelley Institute for Ethics and the Legal Profession. His research traces the transactional work of lawyers in the nineteenth century and the legacy of the law of slavery. Professor Simard received his bachelor’s degree in History from Rice University, and he completed his Juris Doctor and Ph.D. programs at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been published in journals including the Law and History Review, Law and Social Inquiry, the Stanford Law Review, and the Journal of Southern History.
