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Desegregation In Boston: The Lens Of The Present And The Lens Of The Past, Anne Richardson Oakes

Anne Richardson Oakes

When lawyers write about the past they venture upon the territory of historians and encounter new methodological concerns. Both look to the past with the tools of their trade but the former, it is said, use the lens of the present and the latter the lens of the past. In the context of constitutional interpretation the term “law-office history” has highlighted the instrumental nature of legal sensibility but historians have never denied either the historical significance of legal doctrine or the potential of historical study to illuminate current legal problems. If, as this paper considers, the idea of the past …