This course is a study of the development of law in Alabama, and of the Alabama legal profession. We will see these events in the context of regional and national history. The course will cover relevant events from the time of the Mississippi Territory (17981817) through the late twentieth century (the time of the “Heflin Reforms). The course will cover the printed sources of law as well as representative legal texts and treatises. Through discussion and examination of texts, together with the occasional lecture, the students will grasp for themselves the historical foundations of Alabama’s legal regime.
