HISTORY BOOK PROJECT
No legal history of the United States would be complete without a careful review of Texas civil jurisprudence, and yet, nothing substantive has been written about the history of the Texas Supreme Court, particularly in the years after 1890. Over 115 years of legal history are virtually unknown. The Texas Supreme Court Historical Society has undertaken a multi-year research and publication project to fill that gap.
The primary goal of the History Book Project is to produce a comprehensive history of the courts from 1836 to the end of the 20th century. Project staff are currently working with noted author author-historian James L. Haley to produce such a history.
A corollary objective of the project is to build a foundation of studies on various aspects of Texas legal history. Toward that end, the Project Editors have compiled a set of collected readings on the laws and Supreme Court cases that affected slaves and free blacks in early Texas. The book, which combines seminal journal articles with excerpts from primary legal documents and ties them together with editorial commentary by noted historian Randolph B. Campbell, was published in February 2010 by the University of Texas Press as a volume in the new Texas Legal Studies Series. (See story in News and Events.)
JUDICIAL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
The Texas Supreme
Court Historical Society established the Judicial Oral History
Project (JOHP) to gather and preserve information of historical
interest about the Texas judicial system by means of oral interviews.
These interviews are conducted with persons who are or were
either directly associated with the court or had special
knowledge about the judicial officers, the courts or its operations.
Once recorded, the interview is transcribed onto paper, reviewed,
corrected and printed in final form. The interview subject
is asked to donate the interview to the Society by signing
a Deed of Gift, whereby it becomes part of the Society’s archive
collection available for academic and educational research
and public dissemination.
Statue and Plaza Project
Under
the guidance of the Supreme Court of Texas and other courts,
the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society proposed to assist
in the renovation of the existing eastside plaza of the Capitol
Judicial Complex to include the installation of a statue representing
Justice standing before a glass screen and flanked on each
side by emblematic lamps. Each aspect of the statue and plaza
would be designed to enhance the appearance of the existing
Supreme Court building, convey the purpose and importance of
the building, provide a focal point for the capitol grounds,
and offer visually rewarding images for use by the court system
in its print and online presentations.
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