Middle Temple Historical Society | Constitutional Debates and the Path to 1776 [ONLINE]

Michael Lobban FBA, Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College and Professor of Legal History at the University of Oxford, will deliver a lecture entitled: “Constitutional Debates and the Path to 1776”.

In this lecture, Prof. Lobban will examine the legal and constitutional antecedents of the debates that culminated in the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. His analysis will trace the evolution of constitutional argumentation in the eighteenth century, with particular attention to disputes concerning sovereignty, representation, and the limits of legislative authority. These debates, situated within the broader intellectual and political currents of the period, contributed decisively to the emergence of a distinct American constitutional identity.

Prof. Lobban will explore how a recognisably American conception of constitutionalism developed in the decades preceding independence, and how this conception informed the subsequent debates articulated in the Federalist Papers. By linking historical constitutional argumentation with modern jurisprudential controversies, the lecture will illuminate the ways in which foundational legal principles continue to shape contemporary understandings of the American Constitution and, how that informs contemporary constitutional litigation. Hence, the lecture will be of particular relevance to students and practitioners.

The event also reflects the Inn’s historic transatlantic influence. Six Middle Templars signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and seven Middle Templars were signatories to the United States Constitution in 1787. The lecture therefore offers a rare opportunity to engage with a constitutional tradition in which Middle Temple played a formative and enduring role.

Student members (including transferring lawyers) must attend the entire lecture in order to be awarded the Qualifying Session.