Illustrated Law

The extensive holdings of illustrated law (over 1600 titles as of 2017) highlight legal concepts and technical drawings used in the law, as well as satirical images, trial depictions and legal portraits. Extending from manuscripts to postcards, many of these works are notable for their legal iconography. Over 5,000 images from these books can be browsed on the Law Library’s Flickr site.

For a more detailed overview of the illustrated law collection, see Michael Widener & Mark S. Weiner, Law's Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection (Clark, NJ: Talbot Publishing, 2017).

The catalog records for these books in MORRIS contain special subject headings which describe the visual content of the illustrations, enabling researchers to find useful visual content. Below is a list of these subject headings; clicking on them brings up a list of the books they index.

• Agricultural Law
• Allegorical Images
• Animals
• Auctions
• Bankruptcy
• Book Dedication Scenes
• Capital Punishment
• Caricatures
• Children
• Children’s Books
• Civil Law
• Civil Procedure
• Coat of Arms
• Coins
• Comics
• Commercial Law
• Constitutional Law
• Courtroom Scenes
• Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Domestic Relations
• Extra-illustrated
• Genealogical Tables
• Guardianship
• Historical Scenes
• Judgment of Cambyses
• Judgment of Solomon
• Justitia
• Justitia - Headpieces
• Justitia - Title Page Vignettes
• Labor Law
• Law Buildings
• Law Libraries
• Law Offices
• Legal Education
• Maps
• Maritime Law
• Medical Jurisprudence
• Military Law
• Mining Law
• Patents
• Portraits
• Property Rights
• Public Law
• Satire
• Scriptoria
• Slavery
• Taxation
• Technical Drawings
• Ten Commandments
• Textbooks
• Torture
• Trademarks
• Traffic Law
• Tree Diagrams
• Trees of Affinity
• Trees of Consanguinity
• Trials - Civil
• Trials - Criminal
• Trials - Divorce
• Trials - Military
• Trials - Murder
• Trials - Political
• Trials - Slavery
• Water Rights
• Wills and Estates
• Witchcraft