Some of the country's foremost scholars in legal history will convene in March for The Merriam Conference on Current Issues in Legal History. The conference will be held March 1-2 at the ASU University Club. The Conference will honor Dr. Paul Brand, Senior Research Scholar at All Souls College at Oxford University, who is the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Distinguished Visiting Professor and College of Law Merriam Professor.

Dr. Brand will present a paper on "Rhetoric and Reality: the Making and Enforcement of Thirteenth Century Legislation." Joining Dr. Brand in presenting papers will be Professors Richard Helmholz of the University of Chicago, "Canonical 'Juries' in Medieval England;" Charles Donahue of Harvard University, "Once More the Problem of the 'Existence' of Lex Mercatoria: The Views of an Anonymous 13th-century English Treatise and of Benvenuto Stracca," and Mary Sarah Bilder of Boston College Law School, "The Making of Transatlantic Legal Culture: Colonial Rhode Island and the Empire."

Distinguished scholars commenting on the presentations are Professors James Brundage of the University of Kansas, Richard Cosgrove, of the University of Arizona, Dan Klerman, of the University of Southern California, Sally McKee of the University of California, Davis, James Oldham of Georgetown Law School,, and Patrick Brennan, Jonathan Rose, T.J. Davis, Myles Lynk and Retha Warnicke of Arizona State University.