California Legal History | California Supreme Court Historical Society

California Legal History (formerly The California Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook), is an annual journal which publishes scholarly articles and the oral histories of prominent figures of the bench and bar of California (member benefit at minimum $50 level). To purchase current or back issues in hard copy, please contact W.S. Hein & Co., Inc. Full text is available online through subscribing libraries at HeinOnline, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text, and LegalTrac.

Submission Information

2020-2017 | 2016-2015 | 2014-2011 | 2010-2006 | 1999-1994

To view the table of contents and excerpts of selected articles from these volumes, please see below:

› California Legal History | 2020: Vol. 15 [PDF]

›  Justice David S. Terry and Federalism:  A Life and a Doctrine in Three Acts
›  The Joads Go to Court:  A True-Life Melodrama with Implications for Today
›  Celebrating the California Supreme Court and Its History
›  Inside the Court and Out:  California Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar

Articles

›  California’s First Judicial Staff Attorneys:  The Surprising Role That Commissioners Played, 1885-1905, in Creating the Courts of Appeal
›  2020 Writing Competition Virtual Roundtable
›  Ronald Reagan v. CRLA:  Politics, Power, and Poverty Law
›  Breaking California’s Cycle of Juvenile Transfer
›  Stop! Turn the Car Around Right Now for Federalism’s Sake! The One National Program Rule and How Courts Can Stop Its Impact

Special Book Section: A Social History of Farm Labor in California with Special Emphasis on the United Farm Workers Union and California Rural Legal Assistance

›  Title Page, Foreword and Preface
›  Table of Contents
›  Chapter 1 – Introduction
›  Chapter 2 – Farm Labor in California:  The Setting
›  Chapter 3 – Farm Labor Organizing:  The Background
›  Chapter 4 – Farm Workers and the UFW:  Gaining Admission
›  Chapter 5 – Containment of the UFW
›  Chapter 6 – CRLA:  Broadening the Conflict
›  Chapter 7 – Containing CRLA
›  Chapter 8 – Institutionalization Through the ALRA
›  Chapter 9 – Conclusion
›  Coda
›  Bibliography

Oral History of Justice Armand Arabian

› California Legal History | 2019: Vol. 14 [PDF]

›  Introductory Materials
›  Address to the Supreme Court of Mexico on the American Judicial System
›  Access to Justice
›  Law Enforcement and the Courts
›  Mendez v. Westminster and School Desegregation
›  Standing the Test of Time:  Using Diversity as the Foundation for Judicial Decision-Making
›  Language Access in Court
›  On Self-Esteem and Life’s Opportunities
›  Prosecutorial Misconduct
›  “Justice for All Seasons”
›  The State of the Initiative Process as Seen Through the Lens of Criminal Law

›  How a California Settler Unsettled the Proslavery Legislature of Antebellum Louisiana
›  Right of Publicity in the Era of Celebrity:  A Conceptual Exploration of the California Right of Publicity, as Expanded in White v. Samsung Electonics, in Today’s World of Celebrity Glorification and Imitation
›  The Right of Free Speech in Privately Owned Premises:  Following up with the Robins v. Pruneyard Judgment
›  Gems From California’s Legal History at LA Law Library

Special Book Section: A History of the California Supreme Court in its First Three Decades, 1850-1879

›  Preface
›  Table of Contents
›  Chapter 1 – Organization of the Supreme Court
›  Chapter 2 – The Justices
›  Chapter 3 – Common Law and Mexican Law
›  Chapter 4 – Defining the Powers of the Courts
›  Chapter 5 – Defining Individual Judicial Rights
›  Chapter 6 – The Legislature and the State Constitution
›  Chapter 7 – State and Local Authority
›  Chapter 8 – Economic Aspects of a Developing State
›  Chapter 9 – California and the Nation
›  Chapter 10 – Minerals and Waters
›  Chapter 11 – Conclusion
›  Bibliography

› California Legal History | 2018: Vol. 13 [PDF]

This volume is Part II of a two-part tribute to Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar on the occasion of her retirement from the California Supreme Court on August 31, 2017. It is a theme volume with articles on topics in Environmental Law, one of Justice Werdegar’s areas of special interest.

›  The California Environmental Quality Act at 40
›  Honoring Justice Kathryn Werdegar For Landmark Decisions Interpreting the California Environmental Quality Act
›  Justice Werdegar, State Police Power and Obstacle Preemption: An Enduring Legacy
›  What Happened to Hispanic Natural Resources Law in California?
›  From Corporatism to Citizen Oversight: The Legal Fight Over California Redwoods, 1969-1999

Environmental Law – Book Section

The Conservation of Local Autonomy: California’s Agricultural Land Policies, 1900-1966
›  Introductory Materials
›  Chapter 1 – “Slurbanizing” the “Valley of the Heart’s Delight
›  Chapter 2 – The Genesis of Home Rule in California
›  Chapter 3 – From Home Rule to Local Autonomy: Rejecting Regional Planning
›  Chapter 4 – From Home Rule to Local Autonomy: Public Finance Reform
›  Chapter 5 – The Tenacity of Parochialism: State Planning, 1929–1959
›  Chapter 6 – Girding Urban Sprawl With a Slender Green Belt
›  Chapter 7 – Preferential Taxation and the Conservation of Local Autonomy
›  Chapter 8 – The Mutability of Federalism: Reshaping the Contours of the Williamson Act
›  Bibliography

Environmental Law – Oral History Section

Excerpts From the Oral Histories of:

›  John Zierold
›  Thomas J. Graff
›  Henry J. Vaux, Sr.
›  David E. Pesonen
›  Bruce S. Howard
›  William W. Wood, Jr.

Articles

›  Sei Fuji: An Alien-American Patriot
›  California – Laboratory of Legal Innovation
›  Criminal Law Principles in California: Balancing a “Right to be Forgotten” with a Right to Remember

The following article was the 2017 winner of the CSCHS Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition in California Legal History

› California’s No-Duty Law and Its Negative Implications

› California Legal History | 2017: Vol. 12 [PDF]

This volume, published in December 2017, is Part I of a two-part tribute to Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar on the occasion of her retirement from the California Supreme Court on August 31, 2017.