St. George Tucker's Law Reports and Selected Papers, 1782-1825, 3 Vol Set - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo)

About the Book

St. George Tucker's Law Reports and Selected Papers, 1782-1825

Book Synopsis

Best known for his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, St. George Tucker (1752-1827), a lawyer and judge in the state and federal courts of Virginia, played a central role in the legal history of post-Revolutionary Virginia and of the new nation. This comprehensive three-volume edition of Tucker's law reports and selected loose papers, edited by Charles F. Hobson, is an unsurpassed archive for studying the "republicanization" of the common law as it unfolded in the commonwealth of Virginia. In addition, Tucker's papers provide an invaluable source for tracking Virginia's efforts to establish a system of state superior courts operating alongside the older county court system dating from the colonial period.
Tucker's reports fill a documentary gap caused by the 1865 fire that destroyed Virginia's higher court records. The editor's general introduction supplies an informative overview of Tucker's life and judicial career. Editorial aids and appendixes include a guide to Tucker's abbreviations, a short-title bibliography, a glossary of selected legal terms, a biographical register of the Virginia bench and bar, and correspondence and documents relating to the rupture between Tucker and Spencer Roane.

Review Quotes

"Carefully compiled and authoritatively annotated volumes of St. George Tucker's Law Reports and Selected Papers, 1782-1825 are gathered from rare documents and thirty-five remarkable notebooks prepared by a principal early American attorney, judge, and legal scholar." -- Colonial Williamsburg

"Hobson's skillfully edited volumes are required purchase for university libraries and will quickly become a common reference for scholars." -- Journal of American History

About the Author

Charles F. Hobson, editor of The Papers of John Marshall, is a resident scholar at the William and Mary School of Law.