Gregory Ablavsky

- Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law
- Professor, by courtesy, History
- Room N345, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Constitutional History
- Federal Indian Law
- Legal History
- Property Law
Biography
Gregory Ablavsky’s scholarship focuses on early American legal history, particularly on issues of sovereignty, territory, and property in the early American West. His publications explore a range of topics including the history of the Indian Commerce Clause, the importance of Indian affairs in shaping the U.S. Constitution, and the balance of power between states and the federal government. His book Federal Ground: Governing Property and Violence in the First U.S. Territories was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. His work has received the Cromwell Article Prize and the Kathryn T. Preyer Prize from the American Society for Legal History.
Prior to joining the Stanford Law faculty in 2015, Professor Ablavsky was the Sharswood Fellow in Law and History at the University of Pennsylvania. He clerked for Judge Anthony Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was also a law clerk for the Native American Rights Fund in Washington, D.C.
Education
- PhD (History), University of Pennsylvania, 2016
- JD, Penn Law, 2011
- BA (History), Yale, 2005
Related Organizations
Courses
Key Works
News
Congratulations to Our 2022 Prize Winners!
American Society for Legal History
Gregory Ablavsky was awarded the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Book Prize by the American Society for Legal History for his book, Federal Ground: Governing Property and Violence in the First U.S. Territories. Federal Ground, an analysis of early territorial governance, is beautifully written, deeply researched, innovative, and sophisticated. Mining a…
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