Legal archaeology is an area of legal scholarship "involving detailed historical reconstruction and analysis of important cases."
[Charles L. Knapp, Nathan M. Crystal, and Harry G. Prince, ''Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials: Fifth Edition'', pp. 749-50, Aspen Publishers, 2005]
While most legal scholars confine their research to published opinions of court cases, legal archaeologists examine the historical and social context in which a court case was decided. These facts may show what social and cultural forces were at work in a particular case. Professors can use legal archaeology to "sensitize students as to how inequality, specifically with regard to race, gender and class affects what occurs throughout the cases they study."
[Joan Vogel, ''Cases in Context: Lake Champlain Wars, Gentrification, and Ploof v. Putnam'', 45 St. Louis U. L. J. 791, 792.] A legal archaeologist might also research biographical material on the judges, attorneys, and parties to a court case. Such information might show whether a judge held particular biases in a case, or if one party had superior legal representation that caused the party to prevail in a case.
[Judith Maute, ''Response: The Values of Legal Archaeology'', 2000 Utah L. Rev. 223.]
Notable practitioners of legal archaeology
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Richard Danzig
Richard Jeffrey Danzig (born September 8, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton. He served as an advisor of the President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign ...
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Judith Maute
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Debora Threedy
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Joan Vogel
Notes and references
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Academic discipline interactions
a
Legal history
Sociology of law
Archaeological sub-disciplines