David Lynch Legal History Books sku-307089278 Hardcover

David Lynch's The Role of Circuit Courts in the Formation of United States Law in the Early Republic is a hardcover listed under Legal History Books as sku-307089278. The book examines how circuit courts helped develop a uniform system of federal law during the Marshall era, arguing that federal law grew upward from the lower courts as well as through Supreme Court opinions.

It studies Associate Justices Washington, Livingston, Story and Thompson as presiding circuit judges. Drawing on over 1800 mainly circuit opinions and over 2000 original letters, it examines the law the justices relied on, their correspondence about consistency across circuits and their responses to social, political and economic issues.

It considers each justice's work on circuit and on the Supreme Court, including Livingston's and Thompson's earlier service on the New York State Supreme Court.