Overview

Michael Ariens proves that no state possesses a richer or more surprising legal history than Texas. In narrative as engaging as it is accessible, he has produced an overarching consideration of Lone Star law and legal culture something notably missing in other Texas histories. After taking readers chronologically from early settlement through 1920, Ariens focuses on particular areas of Texas law, including property, family, business, criminal, and civil harms (tort), and on the history of Texas's legal profession itself. Through illuminating and utterly Texan particulars, Ariens helps us understand a place at once southern and western, Spanish and Mexican, republic and state.

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9780896729797

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Reviews

"Visitors to the """"Lone Star State"""" quickly learn of its “Six Flags” history, as Texas was colonized by Spain and France, became a part of a Mexican state, then an independent republic, and finally part of the United States, with a brief interlude in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Michael Ariens’ masterful Lone Star Law: A Legal History of Texas artfully integrates the colorful history of the state with its complex legal evolution. From the significant roots of Texas law in the civil code law of Spain and France, through its efforts to combine the best features of Spanish law and English common law, its linkage to the southern legacy of slavery and racial discrimination (and its southwestern mistreatment of Mexican Americans), to the sometimes contentious relationship between the state and the federal government, Lone Star Law has it all...Hats off to Michael Ariens for his terrific legal tour de force."""" - Law and Politics Book Review """"Lone Star Law is a superb book that examines the legal system in Texas, from theCanary Islanders who settled in San Antonio to the modern era of the mega-law firms in Houston and Dallas. Michael Ariens, a St. Mary’s University law professor, uses historical anecdotes from the state’s colorful past to explain the establishment and evolution of the law and Texas as a colony, a Republic, and a state itself...The book will serve as a great resource for historians interested in some of the most colorful and disturbing eras of the state’s past. It also is an entertaining read for all those fascinated by the multinational heritage of Texas and frontier justice."""" - Houston Chronicle"

Visitors to the Lone Star State quickly learn of its Six Flags history, as Texas was colonized by Spain and France, became a part of a Mexican state, then an independent republic, and finally part of the United States, with a brief interlude in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Michael Ariens' masterful Lone Star Law: A Legal History of Texas artfully integrates the colorful history of the state with its complex legal evolution. From the significant roots of Texas law in the civil code law of Spain and France, through its efforts to combine the best features of Spanish law and English common law, its linkage to the southern legacy of slavery and racial discrimination (and its southwestern mistreatment of Mexican Americans), to the sometimes contentious relationship between the state and the federal government, Lone Star Law has it all... Hats off to Michael Ariens for his terrific legal tour de force. -Law and Politics Book Review Lone Star Law is a superb book that examines the legal system in Texas, from the Canary Islanders who settled in San Antonio to the modern era of the mega-law firms in Houston and Dallas. Michael Ariens, a St. Mary's University law professor, uses historical anecdotes from the state's colorful past to explain the establishment and evolution of the law and Texas as a colony, a Republic, and a state itself... The book will serve as a great resource for historians interested in some of the most colorful and disturbing eras of the state's past. It also is an entertaining read for all those fascinated by the multinational heritage of Texas and frontier justice.-Houston Chronicle

Author Information

Michael Ariens is professor of law at St. Mary's University of SanAntonio, where he teaches courses in legal history, constitutional law, and the legal profession.

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