Anne Sappington
PhD Student
Biography
I earned an honors BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago, where I was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. I am currently completing a PhD in English Literature at Trinity under the auspices of the ‘Texts, Contexts, Cultures’ programme and the supervision of Crawford Gribben. In 2011, I was awarded the Peter Irons scholarship by the School of English. I recently started blogging about early modern legal writing. (external)
Research:
My doctoral dissertation focuses on the English parliamentary and legal debates about union and the expansion of the common law sparked by James VI of Scotland’s accession to the English throne in 1603. I examine the writing and speeches of lawmakers and lawyers to track the arguments they employed for the legitimacy of English common law and its potential imposition on both Scotland and Ireland. Because claims for common law’s legitimacy and its jurisdictional superiority were often rooted in claims for its historical or even quasi-mystical origins, I also contextualize legal and political writing in terms of antiquarian narratives of Norman and Anglo-Saxon lawgiving. Finally, I consider English common lawyers’ engagement with continental and civilian legal thought on jurisdiction and allegiance.