At the Legal History Blog, Karen Tani reports on the Kathryn T. Preyer awards (for junior scholars in legal history). At least two of the honored papers are of likely originalist interest:
Michael Schoeppner — “Atlantic Emancipations and Originalism: An Atlantic Genealogy of Dred Scott”
This essay explores the roots of Justice Taney’s reasoning in Dred Scott, tracing it to an earlier conceptualization of citizenship/subjecthood as frozen in time and essentialized in racial terms. The history contributes a disturbing and thought-provoking episode of originalism as instrumentally deployed.
Kevin Arlyck — “Plaintiffs v. Privateers: Litigation and Foreign Affairs in the Federal Courts, 1816-1825”
This paper considers the “consular litigation” brought in U.S. courts by Spanish and Portuguese consuls against American privateers who were working for revolutionary South American governments. Those claims became the most effective way that the consuls could press for a change in American foreign policy on neutrality; they also shaped judicial power along the way.
Posted at 9:45 PM