CN
Unit: School of Law
Department: School of Law
Office location and address
WB302D
580 Massie Rd
Charlottesville,
Virginia
22903
Education
J.D. Harvard Law School 2003
Ph.D. University of Virginia 2010
M.A. University of Virginia 2004
B.A. University of Virginia 1999
Ph.D. University of Virginia 2010
M.A. University of Virginia 2004
B.A. University of Virginia 1999
Biography
Cynthia Nicoletti is a legal historian and professor of law at Virginia Law. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the William Nelson Cromwell Prize for the best dissertation in legal history, awarded by the American Society for Legal History in 2011. Her book, Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis, was published in October 2017.
Publications
Courses
Credits: 3
Examines European legal regimes as they moved around the globe and considers those regimes' interactions with one another and with non-European legal cultures from 1500 to the twentieth century. Themes include: empire formation and legal pluralism; conflicting ideas of property; interaction of settler and indigenous peoples; forced labor and migration; the law of nations; and piracy and the law of the sea.
Credits: 4
The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered.
Credits: 1–4
This course provides the opportunity to offer a new topic in the subject area of United States history.
Credits: 3
This course will examine the constitutional history of the United States from 1845 to 1877, paying attention to how the U.S. Constitution shaped the Civil War, and also to how the war left its mark on the Constitution.
Credits: 3
Students in this course will write a 40 page paper based on original research in legal history. During class sessions, students will be introduced to the basics of the discipline of legal history and learn how to incorporate these ideas into their own original projects. Additionally, students will meet individually with the instructor to discuss the progress of their research over the course of the semester.
Credits: 3
This course will examine the constitutional history of the United States from 1845 to 1877, paying attention to how the U.S. Constitution shaped the Civil War, and also to how the war left its mark on the Constitution. Cannot enroll if have taken Law 9203
Credits: 3
Students in this course will write a paper based on original research in legal history (approx. 40 pages expected). During class sessions, students will be introduced to the basics of the discipline of legal history and learn how to incorporate these ideas into their own original projects. Additionally, students will meet individually with the instructor to discuss the progress of their research over the course of the semester.
Credits: 3
This course will explore the phenomenon of cause lawyering - advocating on behalf of particular clients or causes - throughout American history. We will explore the topic from a theoretical and ethical perspective, but most of our attention will be devoted to historical examples of cause lawyers.
Credits: 1
This short course provides an overview of the constitutional law of government expropriation of private property. In addition to modern Supreme Court regulatory takings and eminent domain doctrine, we will explore the topic from theoretical and historical perspectives.
Credits: 3
Directed research in selected areas of American legal history.
Credits: 1
Eligible students receive credit for serving as research assistants supervised by selected law school faculty members.
Credits: 1
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member
Credits: 3
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 2
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
Credits: 3
This seminar investigates problems in American legal history. Students write a 40-page research paper, evaluate five or six papers written by classmates, and participate in weekly discussions of important works written from different historiographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives.
Credits: 3
This course will examine the constitutional history of the United States from 1845 to 1877, paying attention to how the U.S. Constitution shaped the Civil War, and also to how the war left its mark on the Constitution.
Credits: 3
This course considers European legal regimes as they moved around the globe. It examines those regimes interactions with one another and with non-European legal cultures from roughly 1500 to 1900.
Credits: 1
This course is designed to introduce students to a variety of new work in legal history. Students are required to attend the legal history workshop and the legal history writing group and to write a number of short reaction papers in response to the work presented by legal historians over the course of the year. There is no final exam. Through the class, students will engage with a variety of legal history scholars.
Credits: 1
This first half of a year-long seminar requires students to workshop works-in-progress by legal historians.
Credits: 2
This second half of a year-long seminar requires students to workshop works-in-progress by legal historians.
Credits: 2
This course is designed to introduce students to a variety of new work in legal history. Students are required to attend the legal history workshop and the legal history writing group and to write a number of short reaction papers in response to the work presented by legal historians over the course of the year. There is no final exam. Through the class, students will engage with a variety of legal history scholars.
Credits: 3
Graduate study of the historiography of a particular topic or historical period, equivalent to a graduate-level colloquium course. Prerequisites: Approval of director of graduate studies or department chair.
Credits: 3
In this course, students will prepare for the general examination under the guidance of a faculty examiner. During the course, the student will identify relevant readings; complete and review those readings; and explore the larger questions raised by those readings and their fields more generally.