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How AI Tools Can Help With Legal History Research

Probably not the most in-demand use, but a really cool one. And maybe something that makes originalism easier?

Orin S. Kerr | 3.17.2026 3:46 PM

I do a lot of legal history research in my academic work, often studying late 18th Century legal understandings and trying to trace back their origins. Studying the origins is particularly difficult because, when you start to look at materials from the early 18th century and before, legal reports and books are typically in Latin or Law French (the latter being a sort of weird mix of Latin, French, and Anglo-Saxon used by lawyers). The switch to English was pushed along by laws in 1650 and then 1730, and after 1730 everything seems to be in English.  But if you want to look back at the sources the late 18th Century lawyers relied on—to know not just what Blackstone said, but what Blackstone was relying on, and what what the sources Blackstone was relying on were themselves relying on, etc.—you quickly run up against the........

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