Biography

A scholar whose research focuses on the evolution of commercial law and civil procedure, Amalia Kessler (MA ’96, PhD ’01) seeks to explore the roots of modern market culture and of present-day process norms. In 2007-08, she received a Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, supporting research on her current book project concerning the nineteenth-century origins of American adversarial legal culture—including the forgotten history of equity procedure and its implications for comparative legal scholarship. And in 2005, she was awarded the Surrency Prize by the American Society for Legal History for her article, "Enforcing Virtue: Social Norms and Self-Interest in an Eighteenth-Century Merchant Court," which examines the influence of religious norms on the development of commercial law. Her book, A Revolution in Commerce: The Parisian Merchant Court and the Rise of Commercial Society in Eighteenth-Century France, was recently published by the Yale University Press. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2003, she was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Professor Kessler has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of History.

Key Works

• Amalia Kessler, Deciding Against Conciliation: The Nineteenth-Century Rejection of a Europan Transplant and the Rise of a Distinctively American Ideal of Adversarial Adjudication, Theoretical Inquiries in Law (forthcoming July 2009).
• Amalia D. Kessler, A Revolution in Commerce: The Parisian Merchant Court and the Rise of Commercial Society in Eighteenth-Century France, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, October 2007. 408 pages.
• Amalia D. Kessler, Our Inquisitorial Tradition: Equity Procedure, Due Process, and the Search for an Alternative to the Adversarial, 90 Cornell Law Review 1181 (2005).
• Amalia D. Kessler, A 'Question of Name': Merchant-Court Jurisdiction and the Origins of the Noblesse Commercante, in, A Vast and Useful Art : the Gustave Gimon Collection on French Political Economy. Mary Jane Parrine, editor. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries, 2004.
• Amalia D. Kessler, Enforcing Virtue: Social Norms and Self-Interest in an Eighteenth-Century Merchant Court, 22 Law and History Review, 71 (Spring 2004).
• Amalia D. Kessler, Limited Liability in Context: Lessons From the French Origins of the American Limited Partnership, 32 Journal of Legal Studies 511 (June 2003).
• Amalia D. Kessler, Searching for a “New System” of Government: Linguet and the Rise of the Centralized, Administrative State, 28 Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 93 (2002).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Civil Procedure
• Comparative Law
• Legal History Workshop

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Amalia Kessler, Deciding Against Conciliation: The Nineteenth-Century Rejection of a Europan Transplant and the Rise of a Distinctively American Ideal of Adversarial Adjudication, Theoretical Inquiries in Law (forthcoming July 2009).
• Amalia Kessler, Approches procédurales et institutionnelles de la justice: La réponse contrastée américaine et française á l’augmentation des procés civils “orientés public”, in Droit et Èconomie (38e Congrès du Mouvement Jeune Notariat), Paris: Mouvement Jeune Notariat, November 2007.
• Amalia D. Kessler, A Revolution in Commerce: The Parisian Merchant Court and the Rise of Commercial Society in Eighteenth-Century France, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, October 2007. 408 pages.
• Amalia D. Kessler, Our Inquisitorial Tradition: Equity Procedures, Due Process, and the Search for an Alternative to the Adversarial, in History of the Common Law, John H. Langbein, editor, New York: Foundation Press (forthcoming 2007).
• Amalia Kessler, Revisiting the Question of French and American Difference: A Review of Mitchel de S.O.L'E. Lasser's Judicial Deliberations: A Comparative Analysis of Judicial Transparency and Legitimacy, 18 Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 327 (2006).
• Amalia D. Kessler, Book Review: Susan Desan, The Family on Trial in Revolutionary France, 24 Law and History Review 219 (2006).
• Amalia D. Kessler. Book Review: Cindy Skach, Borrowing Constitutional Designs: Constitutional Law In Weimar Germany And The French Fifth Republic, by Cindy Skach, 16 Law and Politics Book Review 344 (2006).
• Amalia D. Kessler, Book Review of Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study, by Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. and Angelo Dondi, 15 Law and Politics Book Review 22 (2005).
• Amalia D. Kessler, Our Inquisitorial Tradition: Equity Procedure, Due Process, and the Search for an Alternative to the Adversarial, 90 Cornell Law Review 1181 (2005).
• Amalia D. Kessler, A 'Question of Name': Merchant-Court Jurisdiction and the Origins of the Noblesse Commercante, in, A Vast and Useful Art : the Gustave Gimon Collection on French Political Economy. Mary Jane Parrine, editor. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries, 2004.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Elected Member, Nominating Committee of the American Society for Legal History (2008-2010)
• Elected Member, Executive Committee of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Comparative Law
• Director/Editor (representing Stanford), American Society of Comparative Law
• Member, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Member, American Historical Association
• Member, American Society for Legal History
• Member, Law and Society Association
• Member, Society for French Historical Studies

Honors and Awards

• Invitee, Workshop on Common Law Legal Transplants, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University (May-August 2008)
• Recipient, Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (2007-2008), supporting one year of research
• Recipient, 2005 Surrency Prize for "Enforcing Virtue: Social Norms and Self-Interest in an Eighteenth-Century Merchant Court, 22 Law and History Review 71 (2004)
• Recipient, Special Commendation Award, U.S. Department of Justice (December 2002)
• Recipient, Performance Award, U.S. Department of Justice (December 2002)
• Recipient, Star Award for legal representation, U.S. Department of the Interior (September 2002)