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SUMMARY:Getting the American Model Right:  State Constitutional Revision a
 nd the Achievement of General Laws in the Mid-Nineteenth Century U.S. - Pr
 ofessor Naomi Lamoreaux - Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics &amp\; H
 istory - Yale University
DTSTART:20190130T173000Z
DTEND:20190130T190000Z
UID:TALK119461@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Clare Kitcat
DESCRIPTION:Although equality is a topic of much concern these days\, disc
 ussion has focused almost entirely on its material manifestations and espe
 cially on trends in the distribution of income and wealth.  The aim of thi
 s talk is to shift attention to a very different concept of equality:  the
  idea that laws should be general in their application and should treat ev
 eryone (or everyone within broad categories) the same.  This concept of eq
 uality was not an achievement of the American Revolution\, nor of the peri
 od of constitution writing that followed it.  To the contrary\, most legis
 lation in the first half of the nineteenth century continued to consist of
  private and local bills that granted special privileges to particular ind
 ividuals\, groups\, and communities.  The idea that laws should be general
  was the product of a crisis in public finance in the 1840s that led eight
  states (and one territory) to default on their debt obligations and a num
 ber of other states to teeter on the brink of default.  As the defaulting 
 states rewrote their constitutions to prevent such catastrophes from recur
 ring\, they moved to reign in their legislatures by\, among other things\,
  prohibiting the enactment of special and local laws.  These restrictions 
 spread to most states over the next several decades\, and as they did\, th
 ey transformed the way both government and the economy worked.  They also 
 raised new concerns about the meaning of equality.  What did it mean for l
 aws to be general?  Might not the mandate for generality itself become a n
 ew source of inequality?
LOCATION:Yusuf Hamied Theatre\, Christ's College
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