The Original Misunderstanding: The English, the Americans and the Dialectic of Federalist Jurisprudence

This volume deals with the history of the early federal courts in general, and with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase in particular. Presser lays out the relationships between the jurisprudence of the early federal judges and the thought of their opponents in Pennsylvania and Virginia, demonstrating that both owed much to thought in late eighteenth-century England.

"This provocative book aims to reassess . . . the true nature and significance of constitutional interpretation in the 1790s." Reviews in American History

". . . the quality of the scholarship is high. . . . valuable to everyone interested in the evolution of American law. . . . the legal world is indebted to Professor Presser." Legal Publishing Preview

Stephen Presser is a Raoul Berger Professor of Law Emeritus at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law & Professor of Business Law Emeritus at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.