Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize

The Stanford Center for Law and History invites paper submissions from SLS students (including all JD and Advanced Degree students) for the SLS Legal History Paper Prize. Submissions are welcome on any topic in legal history. The prize committee will consider only work completed during the 2022-2023 academic year. Please include a brief abstract at the beginning of your paper. Please do not include any information in the paper that will identify you. Prize winners from 21-22 are ineligible for an award in 22-23, but prize winners from earlier years and “honorable mentions” from all years, including 21-22, are eligible for a prize.

The prize committee will select one SLS student as the winner of the Legal History Paper Prize who will receive a $1000 cash award.

Application is now closed. 

Have Questions?

Please direct any questions you may have to committee chair, Amalia Kessler: akessler@law.stanford.edu.

Past and Present Winners

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 8

Winner, 2022-2023

  • Gabrielle Braxton, JD Candidate

Guess Who's Coming to Stanford: The Battle for the Desegregation of an Elite Law School

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 5

Winner, 2021-2022

  • Tanner Allread, JD/PhD (History) candidate

The Origins of Indigenous Constitutionalism: Choctaw Law and Governance, 1826-1830

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 6

Honorable Mention, 2021-2022

  • Taylor Nicolas, JD 2022

Who Was Your Grandfather on Your Mother's Side: Seduction, Race, and Gender in 1932 Virginia

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 7

Honorable Mention, 2021-2022

  • Audrey Spensley, JD Candidate

The Specter of Class in Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Doctrine: Housing Claims and the Burger Court Era

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 3

Winner, 2020-2021

  • Mark Krass, JD/PhD (Political Science) candidate

Debunking The Non-Delegation Doctrine For State Regulation Of Federal Elections

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 4

Honorable Mention, 2020-2021

  • Daniel Slate, JD/PhD (Political Science) candidate

“Law by Moses” Hebraic Republicanism in the Constitutional Convention and the Debates over Ratification, 1787-1788

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 1

Winner, 2019-2020

  • Magdalene Zier, JD/PhD (History) candidate

Crimes of Omission: State Action Doctrine and Anti-Lynching Legislation in the Jim Crow Era

Stanford Law School Legal History Paper Prize 2

Honorable Mention, 2019-2020

  • Tanner Allread, JD/PhD (History) candidate

Collisions of Sovereignty: Southern State Law Extension Acts in the Removal Era

Prize Committee Members

Amalia D. Kessler 1

Amalia D. Kessler

  • Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies
  • Associate Dean for Advanced Degree Programs
  • Professor, by courtesy, History
  • Director, Stanford Center for Law and History
Birthright Citizenship Is Not an Open Question

Bernadette Meyler

  • Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law
  • Professor, by courtesy, English
  • Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life