John Fabian Witt: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Evolution of American Law

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Yale Law School Professor John Fabian Witt for a discussion of the craft of legal history. Topics covered include: understanding context in legal narratives; nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the evolution of civil liberties and tort law; and the importance of slavery, emancipation, and the established laws of nations in the making of Lincoln’s Code, a revolutionary change in U.S. laws of war.  The conversation concludes with thoughts on how legal history could inform a discussion of the sharing economy’s impact on the law.