Virtual Working Group
Roundtable on Radical Legal Advocacy (a reading, writing, and discussion group)
Learn MoreAnnouncing the 2024 Book Prize Winners
Please join us in celebrating a rich year of scholarship
Learn MoreAnnouncing the 2023 Book and Article Prize Winners
Please join us in celebrating an amazing year of scholarship!
Learn MoreAnnouncing the 2023 Hurst Fellows
Read more about this year's fellows and the Hurst institute
Learn More2021 ASLH Prize Winners and Honorees
We are absolutely delighted to announce the Society's 2021 prize winners and honorees.
Learn More2021 ASLH Election Results
The ASLH has recently elected a new president-elect, new board members, and new nominating committee members.
Learn MoreNew ASLH Fellowships
The ASLH has created new fellowships honoring distinguished scholars who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of legal history.
Learn MoreUpcoming Conference — New Orleans, November 4-6, 2021
Please join us at the InterContinental Hotel, steps away from the historic French Quarter and the riverfront. The complete program and information on vaccination and social distancing measures are now available.
Learn MoreWallace Johnson First Book Program
The Wallace Johnson First Book Program brings together 6 first book authors in even-numbered years. The program meets throughout the year, first at the ASLH Annual Meeting, and then both virtually and in person over the next 12 months, culminating in a lightning round session at the following annual meeting. The next Johnson Program will be held in 2022.
Learn MoreHurst Summer Institute
The Hurst Summer Institute is a two-week gathering of 12 early career scholars held biennially in June of odd-numbered years. The Hurst is convened by a well-known senior legal historian and is designed to provide a supportive and substantive environment for those at the outset of their careers as legal historians. The next Hurst will be held in Madison, Wisconsin in June 2021.
Learn MoreAwards
ASLH supports members and the broader field of legal history in many ways. The Society offers a number of dissertation, book, and article prizes, as well as research grants for early career scholars. Many of these awards are made through the generosity of the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation; others are funded by members’ donations and dedicated funds. ASLH also provides limited start-up funding for new or early stage ventures in legal history for up to three years.
Learn MorePublications
ASLH sponsors the Law and History Review (LHR), a quarterly peer-reviewed journal and accompanying online venue, The Docket. The editor-in-chief of LHR is Gautham Rao. The official book series of the Society, Studies in Legal History (SLH), publishes monographs in collaboration with Cambridge University Press. Editors of SLH are Holly Brewer, Sarah Barringer Gordon, Michael Lobban, and Reuel Schiller.
Learn MoreOur Upcoming Conference —
Banff, Alberta, CA
November 12–14, 2026
Latest News
View all NewsDecember 19, 2025
2026 Annual Meeting Call for Papers
Call for Papers 2026 American Society for Legal History Annual Meeting (November 12 – 14, 2026) The Program Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the 2026 meeting to be held November 12-14 in Banff, Canada. Panels on any facet or period of legal history from… Keep ReadingNovember 29, 2025
ASLH Article Prize Winners 2025
The William Nelson Cromwell Article Prize Aaron Hall, “Bad Roads: Building and Using a Carceral Landscape in the Plantation South,” Journal of American History 111, no. 3 (2024): 469-96. Aaron Hall’s “Bad Roads” traces the making, significance, and effects of ordinary public ways that ran through the South in the… Keep ReadingNovember 29, 2025
Early Career Fellowships & Kathryn T. Preyer Scholars 2025
Early Career Global Legal History Research Fellowship Recipients Shachar Gannot, “Defending the Indefensible: Nazi Defense Attorneys in the Post-War Era,” Ph.D. History candidate Princeton (expected 2028). Aden Knapp, “Judging Empires: International Court of Justice and Decolonization 1945-71,” Ph.D. History, Harvard, 2023, Postdoctoral Fellow Yale University (2024-26). Stephanie… Keep ReadingNovember 24, 2025
ASLH Book Prize Winners – 2025
The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award Matthew Sommer, The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China (Columbia University Press, 2024) Looking back at a lifelong engagement with Chinese legal history in the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a special focus on gender and sexuality,… Keep Reading
Become a Member
The ASLH supports our members in many ways, including offering a variety of awards and fellowships, and funding of proposals and projects. In many ways, including offering a variety of awards and fellowships.
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