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A Division of the Library

Historical Documents

Founding-era charters, antecedent instruments, and treaty texts.

§ I

Introduction

Scope of the Division

Historical Documents

41 catalogued

The Division of Historical Documents preserves the antecedents from which the modern instruments descend. Texts are presented in their received form, with brief bibliographic notes.

§ II

What Belongs Here

The materials catalogued in this division.

A division collects materials of a single kind. The following are the working classes of record.

  1. 01

    Magna Carta and the English statutes of received import

  2. 02

    The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation

  3. 03

    Treaties of historical record and the conventions that produced them

§ III

Research Notes

How the division is read.

Notes for the reader on how the materials are catalogued and consulted.

  1. 01

    Historical texts are catalogued for reference, not as currently operative authority.

  2. 02

    Translations are noted where the original is not in English.

§ IV

Featured Authorities

A working selection from the division.

The following are representative entries. They have been catalogued and reviewed; the longer record opens by catalogue search.

§ V

Related Collections

Subjects that draw upon this division.

The following Research Collections gather authority from this division alongside materials from elsewhere in the catalogue.

Collection

Constitutional Law

The Constitution of the United States and the opinions of the Court that construe it.

Draws from · Constitutions · Judicial Opinions · Historical Documents

Collection

Legal History

The antecedent instruments and the long development of the common law and equity.

Draws from · Historical Documents · Judicial Opinions

§ VII

Related Schools

Departments that read this division.

The Schools below draw their reading from this division. Each enters the Library by way of its own bibliography.

§ VIII

Bibliographic Note

How this division is cited.

Historical instruments are cited by short title and year, with a note on the edition consulted.

Magna Carta (1215), c. 39
Specimen form · Division of Historical Documents

§ IX

Within the Library

Divisions that read alongside this one.

Authority does not respect divisional boundaries. The following divisions are consulted together with this one.

§ X

Authority Discovery

Browse this division by metadata.

These indexes are alternative metadata views of the same canonical authority records. They are not separate collections or archives.

Admission

Read the Historical Documents division alongside the founding cohort.

Founding Members enter every School of the Academy and every division of the Library. Tuition and dues are not yet open.

The Real Law Society · Est. MMXXVRead Law. Not Lore.Vol. I — Folio I