New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise
Edited by:
Femi Cadmus
Law Librarian and Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Nicholas Mignanelli
Assistant Dean and Director of the Mabee Legal Information Center and Associate Professor of Law, University of Tulsa College of Law
$130.00
The moral, the unmissable thread, running through this fascinating collection of legal, literary, and institutional stories is this: Ignore the legal treatise at your own risk! And just as the treatise . . . has turned out to be a persistently valuable resource for understanding stability and change in the protean creature that is ‘the law,’ so too this new volume that you are holding is a valuable resource for understanding stability and change in the treatise itself.
— Ross E. Davies, Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, and Editor of The Green Bag
A Timely and Wide-Ranging Examination of the Legal Treatise
A uniquely focused volume examining the past, present, and future of the legal treatise as a source and genre.
Based on the proceedings of the Second Yale Legal Information Symposium, this collection of essays edited by Femi Cadmus and Nicholas Mignanelli examines the legal treatise through the lenses of history, authorship, identity, and technological transitions. The legal historian John Langbein lays the groundwork for this endeavor with an essay tracing the decline of legal treatise writing in the American legal academy to the rise of legal realism. The contributions that follow address subjects ranging from the development and impact of the Anglo-American legal treatise to the implications of electronic format and the continuing relevance of the legal treatise in an era of so-called “AI-driven” law.
Contributors include law librarians and legal scholars from across the United States and Canada.
Assistant Director for Research & Instruction Services at the Michael J. Goodson Law Library and Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School
Director of the Leon E. Bloch Law Library and Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
Faculty Scholarship Librarian and Legal Research Instructor, Villanova University Charles Widget School of Law
John H. & John M. Kane Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Kansas School of Law
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Legal History, Yale Law School
Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis School of Law
Director of Library and Research Services, Phillips Lytle
Chief Law Librarian, New York City Law Department
Director of Howard H. Hunter Law Library, J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University
Former Head of Research Services at the Arthur J. Morris Law Library, University of Virginia School of Law
Law and Computing Program Director, Marie-Clement Rodier, C.Sp. Endowed Chair, and Professor of Law, Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University
Associate Director of Research, Instruction & Scholarship at the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library, University of Connecticut School of Law
Head of Scholarly Services at the Michael J. Goodson Law Library and Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School
Professor of Law and English, Director of the Centre for Innovation Law & Policy, and Chair in Innovation Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Associate, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
Assistant Dean for Library & Information Resources, Harvard Law School
Together, these essays offer a deeper understanding of the legal treatise’s historical development, doctrinal significance, and continuing influence in a changing legal information environment.
Explore New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise
Summary of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I: History
- Part II: Authorship
- Part III: Identity
- Part IV: Technological Transitions
- Further Reading
- Index
Part I: History
Examines the historical development of the legal treatise and its role in shaping legal thought, doctrine, and authority over time.
- Examines the origins and evolution of the legal treatise in Anglo-American law
- Explains how treatises came to influence courts, legal education, and practice
- Provides essential historical context for understanding the treatise’s enduring authority
Part II: Authorship
Interrogates who writes legal treatises, whose voices are amplified, and how authorship shapes legal knowledge.
- Analyzes the relationship between authorship and legal authority
- Explores issues of identity, expertise, and representation in legal scholarship
- Encourages critical evaluation of whose perspectives are embedded in legal sources
Part III: Identity
Focuses on how legal treatises shape legal meaning, doctrine, and conceptions of personhood within the law.
- Examines the role of treatises in constructing legal concepts such as the “reasonable person” and doctrinal frameworks
- Investigates how treatises have reinforced or challenged systems of power, including slavery and civil rights jurisprudence
- Highlights the influence of treatises on the development of legal identity and interpretive traditions
Part IV: Technological Transitions
Considers the legal treatise’s transformation in digital environments and its relevance in an era of algorithmic and AI-assisted research.
- Explores the impact of digitization on authority and access
- Questions how electronic formats alter interpretation and use
- Addresses what the future may hold for treatises amid emerging technologies
About the Editors
Femi Cadmus
Femi Cadmus is Law Librarian and Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Before her current role, she was the Archibald C. and Frances Fulk Rufty Distinguished Research Professor of Law and Director of the Michael J. Goodson Law Library at Duke University. Prior to this, she held the position of Edward Cornell Law Librarian and Professor of the Practice at Cornell University. A recognized leader in law librarianship, she served as the President of the American Association of Law Libraries from 2018 to 2019. Her research interests and publications focus on the intersection of law and technology, open access to legal information, and the evolving function of the modern-day law library.
Nicholas Mignanelli
Nicholas Mignanelli is Assistant Dean and Director of the Mabee Legal Information Center and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. He formerly served as the Assistant Director for Reference at the Lillian Goldman Law Library and a Lecturer in Legal Research at Yale Law School. His research uses critical frameworks to examine legal information structures and practices with focuses on emerging legal technologies and American law book history. His work has been published in Law Library Journal, The Library Quarterly, Journal of Legal Education, Georgetown Law Technology Review, Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés, and Boston University Law Review Online, among other journals.
Add Essential Perspectives on Legal Literature and Legal Authority to Your Collection
New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise
Editors: Femi Cadmus & Nicholas Mignanelli
Item #: 1007666
ISBN: 9780837743325
Pages: xiii, 296p.
1 Volume…$130.00
Published: Getzville; William S. Hein & Co., Inc.; 2025
