Legal History Workshop
The Legal History Workshop is hosted by Professor Alexander Arnold. Faculty, students, and staff are invited to attend our Legal History Workshop.
To attend and receive a copy of the paper, please email legalhistoryworkshop@law.ucla.edu.
Colloquium Speakers
UCLA Legal History Workshop – Spring 2026
Coordinator: Alexander Arnold
Mondays, 4:20-5:20 p.m., Room 1314
**Please note the January 14 workshop is on a Wednesday, and the April 23 workshop is on a Thursday.
**Wednesday, January 14
Ariela Gross, UCLA School of Law
"Erasing Slavery: Right Wing Backlash and the Memory of a Colorblind Constitution"
Monday, January 26
Maximo Langer, UCLA School of Law
"Younger Than We Think: “The Supreme Court and the Mid-Century Birth of 'Our Adversary System'"
Monday, February 2
Stuart Banner, UCLA School of Law
"When Tipping Was a Crime"
Monday, February 9
Nomi Stolzenberg, USC Gould School of Law
"The Original DEI: Diversity as a Disestablishment"
Monday, February 23
Kellen Funk, Columbia Law School
"The Reconstruction of American Bail, 1850-1885"
Monday, March 2
Christian Burset, Notre Dame Law School
"The Origins of Statutory Stare Decisis"
Monday, March 9
Blake Emerson, UCLA School of Law
"'Good Administration': Examining the Legislative History, Political Theory, and Constitutional Background of a Civil Service Principle"
Monday, March 16
Fred Smith, Stanford Law School
"Legitimacy Laundering"
Monday, March 30
Vivien Tejada, UCLA Department of History
"Schooling and Servitude: Menominee Children, Bound Labor, and the Struggle for Authority in Michigan Territory, 1827-1834"
Monday, April 6
Clyde Spillenger, UCLA School of Law
"The Dog-Wagging Full Faith and Credit Clause: Origins and Evolution"
Monday, April 13
K-Sue Park, UCLA School of Law
"Border Violence"
Monday, April 20
Amalia Kessler, Stanford Law School
"The Quest for Modern American Democracy: Arbitration Governance, and the Jewish Question, 1900-1950"
**Thursday, April 23
Steven Bank, UCLA School of Law
"A Crisis of Confidence: Tariffs and the Turn-of-the-Century Shift to Income Taxation"
Past Colloquia
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Spring 2024
January 24
Daniel LaChance, Emory
The Limits of Empathy: Death Penalty Abolitionism in the 1920sFebruary 7
Ariela Gross, UCLA
Erasing Slavery: How Stories About Slavery and Freedom Shape Battles Over the ConstitutionFebruary 21 (via Zoom)
Greg Ablavsky, Stanford
The Original Meaning of Commerce in the Indian Commerce ClauseMarch 6
Laura Kalman, UCSB
The Warren Court and “the Right to Have Rights”March 20 (via Zoom)
Maeve Glass, Columbia
Water Ground: A Forgotten Landscape of America’s Constitution, 1584-1860April 10
Christopher Schmidt, Chicago-Kent
The Defeat of John Parker and the Making of the Modern Supreme Court -
Spring 2025
January 27
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, History, UCLA
“The Whites-Only Immigration Regime”
(larger project: Still Racist: Immigration Control Since 1790)February 3
Adriana Chira, History, Emory
“Beyond the Chattel Principle: Vulnerability, Intimacy, and the Laws of Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Cuba.”February 10
Tamika Nunley, History, Duke
The Demands of Justice: Enslaved Women, Capital Crime, and Clemency in Early Virginia, Intro and Chapter.February 24
Sunita Patel, Law, UCLA
“Campus Protest Policing”March 3
Sam Erman, Law and History, University of Michigan
“Status Manipulations: How U.S. Liberal-Democratic Ideals Accommodated Slavery, Nativism, Empire, and Anti-Indigeneity”March 10
Tanner Allread, Law, UCLA
“Indigenous Constitutionalism”March 17
Rabia Belt, Law, Stanford
“An Awful Tragedy: The Hidden History of the American M’Naghten”March 31
Dylan Penningroth, Law and History, Berkeley
“Hidden Histories of Black Civil Rights”April 7
Lauren Van Schilfgaarde, Law, UCLA
“Noncompetent Indians Not Taxed”April 14
Stuart Banner, UCLA Law
“When Tipping Was A Crime”April 21
Alexander Arnold, UCLA Law
“Truth Seeking in Civil Litigation: The Early Years”
