Books by James Willard Hurst

This collection of 6 essays provides a definitive analysis of the doctrinal development of the law of treason in the U.S., beginning with its English origins and concluding with the present day. The author traces the materials available for studying the law of treason and examines the modifications and changes that have evolved.

The first contemporary history of the development of American law. A survey of the nature and success of the institution of American law and its agencies and legislative bodies from roughly 1740-1940. Considered "...a pioneering attempt to evaluate in broad terms the contributions to the development of American law made by its five chief formative agencies, the legislatures, the courts, the constitution-making process, the bar and the executive." William F. Fracher, Mo. L. Rev. 15:332-333. By the major legal historian whose writings led "... scholars from other disciplines... to look at law with a fresh and sometimes illuminating eye." Friedman, A History of American Law 595. An important work that has been highly regarded for its social perspective, Henry Steele Commager called it "...a pioneer work in this badly neglected field ...combine(s) scholarship, insight, and narrative and analytical skill in a striking manner."

Explores the development of corporate law from the 1780s, a time when the special charter was the only form of incorporation, to the 1960s, a time when corporations were established exclusively through general incorporation statutes. More than a chronicle, this emphasises how legal institutions actively shaped the central traits of American capitalism.