Coquillette on the Profession, Jury Trials, and Legal Education Circa 1763

Posted by Alan Childress
Daniel Coquillette (B.C.--Law) has posted this article to bepress's NELLCO collection: "The Legal Education of a Patriot: Josiah Quincy Jr.'s Law Commonplace (1763)."  It will appear in Arizona State Law Journal, sum. 2007.  The paper can be downloaded (free and without subscription) from this site.  Here is the abstract:

This article is based on the exciting discovery of a never before printed Law Commonplace, written by the 18th-century lawyer and patriot, Josiah Quincy, Junior. Quincy was co-counsel with Adams in the famous Boston Massacre Trial, a leader of Committee on Correspondence and the Sons of Liberty, and author of the first American law reports. His Law Commonplace provides an exceptional window into the political, racial and gender controversies of the evolving American legal system, and profoundly challenges our conventional views on the origin of American legal education. In certain areas, particularly jury trial, it also has present constitutional significance, as compelling evidence of the state of the law referenced by the Seventh Amendment.

Professor Coquillette discusses the advocacy of Quincy and Adams, and relates it to Cully Stimson's controversial comments, in this Boston Globe op-ed.