As a field of study, legal history has an unsteady place in Australian
law schools yet academic research and writing in the field of legal
history and at the intersections of the disciplines of 'law' and
'history' is undergoing something of a renaissance, with rich and
vibrant new works regularly appearing in specialist journals and
scholarly monographs.This collection seeks to reinvigorate the study of
history within the law school curriculum, by showcasing what students of
the law can achieve when, addressing topics from the use of Magna Carta
as history and precedent in sixteenth-century England to the political
manoeuvres behind the failed impeachment of President Bill Clinton in
late twentieth-century America, they seek to understand legal processes
and institutions historically.The volume comprises outstanding legal
history papers authored by graduate (final year JD) students in the
Melbourne Law School.This collection is dedicated to two women who
championed the teaching of legal history at the Melbourne Law School in
the 1960s-Dr Ruth Campbell and Mrs Betty Hayes.