Thursday, Oct. 13: Seminar and Discussion with Professor John Bessler

Join us in the Riesenfeld Center for a lunch hour seminar and conversation with Professor John Bessler (U. Baltimore) about the tools and methods of research in legal history, with a discussion of work that he has done on the renowned 18th-century penologist and death penalty reformer, Cesare Beccaria, and other projects. Join a broader conversation following about approaching historical topics of legal research, choosing and reading sources, and bringing these to bear on important legal issues today.

 

Topics and Methods: Doing Legal History Research

Thursday, October 13
12:15 – 1:15 p.m. Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center (N30 on the Subplaza) 

 

Professor John Bessler, a law professor and legal historian at the University of Baltimore School of Law since 2009, has also taught at the University of Minnesota Law School, the George Washington University Law School, the Georgetown University Law Center, Rutgers School of Law, and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He has written and edited eleven books, including extensive work on the history of capital punishment, intellectual biographies of Cesare Beccaria, and the craft of writing. His law review articles have appeared in the American Criminal Law Review, the Arkansas Law Review, the Northeastern University Law Review, and elsewhere, and his books have received numerous awards.