Progress, Stability, and the Struggle for Equality: A Ramble Through the Early Years of Maine Law, 1820-1920

Progress, Stability, and the Struggle for Equality: A Ramble Through the Early Years of Maine Law, 1820-1920. Portland, Me.: Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon, 2009. xiv, 346 pp. with 16 pages of black and white illustrations and portraits. ISBN 13: 9780966401547. Softcover.

Contents: Why legal history matters. Finding and making the common law. Charting new courses. Foundational constitutional principles. Paupers. Maine's law's debt to animals. Contributory negligence and railroad crossing collisions. Women and the law. Employee injuries. Wrongful death claims. Maine's morality laws. Ensuring public safety. The court and the public schools. Maine's blasphemy case. The Civil War. Maine's rivers. Resolving disputes between neighbors. Governmental power and private property. Concluding thoughts.

Hugh MacMahon, a resident of Falmouth, Maine, practiced law for many years with the firm of Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon in Portland, Maine. Now retired from active practice, he remains affiliated with the firm in an of counsel capacity. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has taught courses as a lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law.