Editor of John Marshall Papers Tells of 'Keeping Company' with the Great Chief Justice at William & Mary Law School
Charles F. Hobson, editor of The Papers of John Marshall and resident scholar at the William & Mary Law School, will present a lecture, "Keeping Company with Chief Justice Marshall," Thursday, Sept. 22, at noon in the McGlothlin Courtroom at the Law School on South Henry Street. The talk is free and open to the public.
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Marshall's birth, Hobson will reflect on the life and character of the "great Chief Justice" from his perspective as the editor of his collected papers. Marshall, an alumnus of the Law School who studied law under George Wythe, served as Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835. The 12th and final volume of The Papers of John Marshall will be published in spring 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. A portion of Hobson's remarks will be based on this volume, which covers the last four years of Marshall's life.
Hobson has served as editor of The Papers of John Marshall since1979. He has written and lectured extensively on Marshall and the Supreme Court. He is the author of The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law, published in 1996. He most recently contributed an essay, "The Marshall Court (1801-1835): Law, Politics, and the Emergence of the Federal Judiciary," to a book titled The United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice, edited by Christopher Tomlins.
Cake and cider will be served in the Law School's main entrance hall in honor of the Chief Justice's birthday immediately following the lecture. All are welcome to attend.
In addition, two exhibits sponsored by the Law Library and Swem Library are on display from now through September 26 at the Law School. The Marshall family bible, from the Law School's rare book collection, will be displayed in the Law Library lobby during daytime hours. In addition, facsimiles of some of Marshall's papers and letters from Swem Library's special collections will be on display in the Law School's main entrance hall. Among the documents is a page from a book of law notes kept in 1780 by Marshall while he was a student of George Wythe's.
For more information, call 757-221-1840 (lawcom@wm.edu).