Landmarks of Law Reporting 1 -- Introduction
Case reports are a fundamental source for the study and practice of law in the Anglo-American common law system. “Landmarks in Law Reporting,” the Spring 2009 exhibition from the Lillian Goldman Law Library’s Rare Book Collection, illustrates the development of law reporting from the Middle Ages to modern times.
The exhibit begins with a manuscript collection of cases from the reign of Edward III, copied in about 1450. Also on display are first editions of the reports of Edmund Plowden (1571), considered the first modern-style reports) and Sir Edward Coke (1600), perhaps the most influential reports). Other “firsts” include the first American case reports (Ephraim Kirby’s 1789 reports of Connecticut cases) and the first U.S. Supreme Court reports (Dallas’ Reports, 1798).
Recurring themes in the exhibition include the gradual transformation from manuscript to print, the growth of legal publishing, the connections between law reporting and legal education, and the growing demands by lawyers for timely, well-organized reports.
The Rare Books Exhibition Gallery is located in the lower level of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (Level L2), directly in front of the Paskus-Danziger Rare Book Reading Room. For those unable to visit the exhibit in person, stay tuned to the following postings here on the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.
MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the following for their assistance and advice in the research and preparation of this exhibit:
- Morris L. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Law, Yale Law School
- John H. Langbein, Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History, Yale Law School
- Sabrina Sondhi, Special Collections Librarian, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library, Columbia University
Additional help in mounting the exhibit came from Brian Mendez and Fred Shapiro (Lillian Goldman Law Library), Joanne Kittredge (Yale Law School), and Emma Molina Widener (University of New Haven).
“Landmarks of Law Reporting” is on display April through October 2009 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.
Image: Volume 2 of Alexander James Dallas, Reports of Cases Ruled and Adjudged in the Several Courts of the United States, and of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1798), containing the first reports of U.S. Supreme Court cases.
