Help make Congress.gov better! Congress.gov is being redesigned to enhance the user experience. You can help by participating in a user research activity.

Interested? Email user-research-info@loc.gov and tell us you are interested in supporting Congress.gov, and be sure to note if you are a government employee.

The Congress.gov team follows a user-centered design process to ensure the website meets our users’ needs and expectations. It’s a five-phase, iterative process:

• Discovery – Team members gather everything we know from users, stakeholders, and existing data.
• Define – The team identifies where opportunities exist for users to inform requirements and constraints.
• Ideate – We work with stakeholders to explore ways to solve problems, leverage opportunities, and iterate on refinements.
• Prototype – Team members create design concepts of proposed solutions.
• Validate – Real users, like you, help validate the design choices.

Findings and insights from the “Validate” phase inform more rounds of “Ideate,” “Prototype,” and “Validate.” Data from each activity shapes the next activity and informs the next phase in the user-centered design process.

The Congress.gov team is well underway with the website’s user-centered redesign. We are now in the “Prototype” phase. The user experience (UX) team members are actively redesigning Congress.gov to address pain points uncovered in the “Discovery” phase and implementing opportunities for improvements identified in the “Define” phase.

Next, we will move to the “Validate” phase and conduct multiple rounds of user research with congressional and public participants. We need your support to make this phase successful! Email user-research-info@loc.gov to tell us you are interested in participating, and be sure to note if you are a government employee.

The Congress.gov team shared additional updates about the enhancements to Congress.gov at this year’s Congress.gov Public Forum. Watch the recording to learn more: 2026 Congress.gov Public Forum.

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Levi Weeks was indicted for the murder, and the trial took place on March 31 and April 1, 1800, before a panel of three judges at the New York City Hall in the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Weeks assembled a team of powerful attorneys for his defense. Levi’s brother, Ezra Weeks, was a wealthy and influential builder who hired Henry Brockholst Livingston, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton to defend Levi. In his opening statement, the assistant attorney general remarked upon Levi’s choice of legal team, saying, “In a cause which appears so greatly to have excited the public mind, in which the prisoner thought it necessary for his defence to employ so many advocates distinguished for their eloquence and abilities, so vastly my superiors in learning, experience, and professional rank…,” suggesting that the choice of defense attorneys implied guilt. (William Coleman, Report on the Trial of Levi Weeks 12 (1800).)

During the trial, the prosecutor argued that after seducing Elma with the promise of marriage, Levi had killed her and hidden her body in the well, but he acknowledged that there was only circumstantial evidence to support this theory. (Coleman at 12-18.) The prosecution brought witnesses to recall details of the night of the murder and to testify about the condition of Elma’s body after it was recovered from the well. The prosecution’s witnesses testified about seeing Elma the night of her disappearance, hearing a woman crying out for help, and seeing a horse-drawn sleigh, allegedly belonging to Ezra Weeks, near the well where Elma was found. Doctors were called to testify that her injuries suggested that she was murdered. However, some of the prosecution’s witnesses discredited their case; two young boys present when Elma’s muff was retrieved from the well were deemed incompetent to testify after stating that they did not know what an oath required of them, and a doctor who was called to testify about Elma’s injuries was actually a dentist who had not done a thorough medical examination and had only observed her body while it was publicly displayed in a coffin. (Kleiger at 93, 99.)

In his opening statement for the defense, Aaron Burr argued that Elma Sands was not murdered, but instead took her own life. (Coleman at 66.) The defense brought witnesses who claimed Levi was seen at Ezra’s house the night that Elma disappeared, giving him an alibi. (Coleman at 70.) The defense brought its own doctors to testify that Elma died by drowning, instead of by an act of violence. (Coleman at 77-79.) They also brought witnesses to call Elma’s character into question, including a neighbor who claimed that he overheard Elma and Elias Ring, her cousin Catherine’s husband, having an affair. (Coleman at 71-72.)

At the conclusion of the arguments, the judge delivered the jury instructions and, after five minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict that Levi Weeks was not guilty. (Coleman at 98.) Although Weeks was acquitted, “[i]t has been said that Levi Weeks was threatened and insulted whenever he ventured forth in the streets, and that he was forced to leave the city, never to return.” (Kleiger at 171.) He would eventually settle in Natchez, Mississippi, where he married and worked as an architect until his death in 1819. (Kleiger at 201-204.)

The full transcript of the trial has been digitized and is available through the Library of Congress website. There were three trial transcripts made, but “the version considered to be most reliable,” transcribed by William Coleman, is the version available on the Library’s website. (Kleiger at 21-23.)

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This summer, I had the privilege of spending a week in residence at the Law Library of Congress as a Guggenheim Scholar. The residency allowed me to immerse myself in a question that has recently occupied my research: Why are courts so often slow, and what can we learn from courts that have found ways to move cases more efficiently?

I came to the project as a legal scholar who uses computational and empirical methods to study courts. At Georgia Tech, I direct the Law, Data & Design Lab, which brings together researchers from law, policy, computer science, operations, and other disciplines to study legal systems using quantitative data and methods. I am also affiliated with a non-profit organization that develops a free, public repository of structured litigation data derived from court records.

Those projects have given me access to enormous amounts of information about what happens inside U.S. courts. But data alone cannot answer every question about court delay, nor is this country the only place where court systems struggle to process cases. To understand how courts might operate differently, I wanted to look beyond the United States. That is where the Law Library of Congress became particularly valuable.

I used my residency to expand the comparative dimension of my research by gathering studies, government reports, reform proposals, and other materials on court congestion and delay in legal systems worldwide. This work allowed me to tap the Library’s unparalleled foreign law collections and access the deep expertise of its foreign law specialists.

As I worked through the Library’s collections, I encountered essentially identical observations about the problems and perils of slow courts over and over again. The Library’s catalog alone lists publications from 42 different countries under the subject heading “Court congestion and delay,” spanning decades, in languages ranging from Angolan Portuguese to German to Thai.

Though courts operate in different legal and institutional environments, the basic operational concerns recur: cases accumulate, litigants wait, judges and court staff struggle with competing demands, and policymakers search for ways to reduce backlogs without sacrificing fairness or the quality of adjudication. The problem is not as simple as “too many cases, too few judges.” Instead, delays emerge as a result of complicated interactions between and among rules, norms, resource constraints, and strategic behavior. Courts and court researchers can learn from each other, even when substantive law and procedural rules differ, as they tackle these common operational problems.

I am still working through the materials that I gathered during my residency to identify best practices that might be translatable across legal systems. Thanks to my residency, I now have a much better map of where that work has already taken place.

For their help in navigating materials from jurisdictions and legal systems well outside my own areas of expertise, I would like to thank foreign law specialists Jenny Gesley, George Sadek, Sayuri Umeda, and Laney Zhang, as well as foreign law interns Eun Young Nam and Julia Quintao Frade. Aslihan Bulut and Peter Roudik, the Law Librarian of Congress and Assistant Law Librarian for Legal Research, were also generous with their time in helping arrange my residency, as were Robert Brammer and Taylor Gulatsi. I am also grateful for the reference librarians who helped me navigate the Law Library’s extensive holdings and locate materials that would have been difficult, and often impossible, for me to find on my own.

The purpose of this program is to fund a scholar whose research will draw upon the Law Library’s world-class collections, target new acquisitions, and leverage the Law Library’s staff expertise. The focus of the program is to create new research at the intersection of demography, technology, and criminal justice. This research will generate benchmarks, metrics, best practices, and possible solutions to some of the emerging legal issues that fall at the intersection of these fields. The program will encourage a multidisciplinary and multinational approach for the greatest impact.

Eligibility

• Scholars who have received a graduate degree or have equivalent experience within the past seven years in criminal justice, law, demography, data science, or data analytics are eligible to apply.
• This fellowship is open to all U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents (green-card holders), and foreign nationals. Awards to foreign nationals are conditioned on visa and payment eligibility.

Program Expectations

• The scholar must spend a minimum of five days on-site at the Law Library to conduct their research in July, August, or September of 2027.
• At the conclusion of their research over the course of July, August, or September of 2027, we may ask the scholar to produce a presentation, publication, or article that summarizes his or her findings.
• The scholar may receive assistance from Law Library staff and have the opportunity to participate in a Law Library of Congress event panel discussion, such as Human Rights Day.

How to Apply

To apply, please send the following application materials to lawresearch@loc.gov:

• A current CV/resume
• A list of publications
• A list of references
• A one-page project proposal that includes details on how the Law Library of Congress’s collections can support your research

Deadline
Application materials must be received by February 1, 2027, to be considered for the summer 2027 program.

Visas

Foreign nationals (not United States Citizens or Permanent Residents) awarded Library of Congress fellowships for research in the U.S. may be eligible for a Library-sponsored exchange visitor visa (category J-1). Even if it would otherwise be possible for a foreign visitor to enter the U.S. without this type of visa, it is the most appropriate category for Library-provided fellowship opportunities.

The Library’s Contracts and Grants Directorate will provide documents necessary to apply for the J-1 visa. If you are selected for a Library of Congress fellowship, please email visas@loc.gov to request the documents. In the email, include the information provided in the Library’s offer letter.

Foreign nationals already in the U.S. on visas obtained through or sponsored by other institutions should send an email to visas@loc.gov to obtain guidance on eligibility under existing visas. Do not email any personally identifiable information (PII) to visas@loc.gov. The Library will send you information on how to provide information after we receive your email. Please note that individuals with H-1B visas are not eligible for Library opportunities, and all other visa types will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

In many Latin American countries, one title appears again and again: Código Civil. A civil code is a systematic body of rules governing many of the legal relationships of everyday life, from owning property to entering into contracts to inheriting an estate. Its scope varies by country, but it commonly addresses persons and family relations, property, inheritance, obligations and contracts. Chile’s Civil Code, for example, organizes these subjects into four principal books.

Civil codes are closely associated with the civil-law tradition that prevails across much of Latin America. This tradition places particular emphasis on systematically organized legislation. The common-law tradition, by comparison, has historically given judicial precedent a more important role in developing legal rules. Both traditions, however, rely on legislation and judicial interpretation. The distinction concerns their historical development and methods, rather than an exclusive reliance on either codes or court decisions.

Why did civil codes become so prominent in Latin America? In the Spanish-speaking countries considered here, the answer brings together colonial legal inheritances, independence, 19th-century codifications and the work of Latin American jurists.

Before the Codes: Spanish Legal Heritage in the Americas

Colonial Spanish America was not governed by a single, comprehensive civil code. Instead, its legal order drew on overlapping sources, including Castilian law, legislation issued specifically for the colonies, royal decrees, municipal ordinances, and local customs. Roman and canon law also shaped legal learning and practice.

Among the important compilations were the Siete Partidas and the Recopilación de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias. These compilations belonged to different periods spanning from 1681 to 1807. Another compilation, the Novísima Recopilación de las Leyes de España, was approved in 1805, near the end of Spanish colonial rule in much of mainland America. The relevance of these authorities varied by place, period, and subject. Indigenous normative traditions and other customary practices further complicated the legal landscape.

Independence did not immediately displace this inherited law in the former Spanish colonies. As new republics enacted their own legislation, they also had to decide which existing rules to retain, modify, or replace. Codification offered a way to organize that inheritance into national bodies of law. 

Independence and the Movement Toward Codification

A civil code promised to bring scattered rules into a more coherent and accessible framework. It could also help establish the legal institutions of a newly independent state.

Latin American jurists participated in a wider codification movement. The French Civil Code of 1804, commonly known as the Napoleonic Code, became an influential reference point. Yet Latin American codification drew on a broader range of sources.

Chile‘s 1855 presidential message presenting the proposed Civil Code to Congress illustrates this approach. It described the need to organize accumulated legislation and explained choices drawn from existing law and foreign models. 

Andrés Bello and the Chilean Civil Code

Andrés Bello offers a particularly compelling example of this process. Born in Caracas in 1781, Bello was a humanist, educator, diplomat, and jurist who became a central figure in Chile’s intellectual and institutional life.

Bello was the principal drafter of Chile’s Civil Code, enacted in 1855 and effective in 1857. His work brought together multiple legal traditions. Scholars have traced its provisions to Roman law, the Siete Partidas, the French Civil Code, and the Louisiana Civil Code, among other sources. 

Bello’s achievement illustrates the active role of Latin American jurists in shaping national law. A Venezuela-born scholar working in Chile selected, organized, and adapted legal materials from across the Atlantic world. The resulting code would, in turn, become a model beyond Chile’s borders.

From Chile to Colombia and Beyond

The influence of Bello’s code is especially clear in Colombia, where its reception unfolded over several decades. As Colombia’s Constitutional Court recounts in Decision C-507 of 2004, the State of Santander adopted Bello’s code in 1858, followed by other states during Colombia’s federal period. A civil code was then enacted for the United States of Colombia in 1873.

Following the transition to a centralized republic, article 1 of Law 57 of 1887 provided that the listed codes, including the 1873 civil code, would govern throughout the republic with specified additions and reforms. Colombia’s experience thus moved through state adoption, federal legislation, and national legal unification. The reception of Bello’s work was closely connected to the country’s changing constitutional structure.

In Argentina, Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield drafted its Civil Code, which was approved in 1869 and entered into force in 1871. His work also drew on a range of legal sources, including Bello’s code, while also considering Argentina’s existing customs and legal traditions. 

Why Civil Codes Still Matter

Civil codes remain important sources of private law, but they have continued to change.

Argentina replaced its 19th-century Civil Code with a unified Civil and Commercial Code approved by Law 26994 of 2014. Chile and Colombia, by contrast, retain civil codes rooted in their 19th-century texts, with extensive subsequent amendments.

Modern codes operate alongside constitutions, specialized legislation, and judicial decisions. They do not contain every rule governing private relationships, but they continue to provide an organizing framework for subjects such as property, inheritance and contracts.

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, these histories offer a window into the legal development of Spanish-speaking Latin America. They reveal both shared inheritance and the choices through which jurists and lawmakers transformed it. Following a civil code from its sources to its drafting, adoption and later revision shows how national legal traditions take shape and continue to evolve. 

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

We hope you will join us for these informative and interesting webinars!

A Lunch and Learn Webinar: Using Secondary Sources in Legal Research

Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET

Content: This webinar will provide an overview of secondary sources such as legal encyclopedias, treatises, and dictionaries. In addition, the webinar will provide examples of how these resources are used in practice. The presentation will demonstrate how secondary sources are an important step in the legal research method and how they can guide researchers to primary sources. Many of the materials and content for this webinar have come from the Law Library’s research guide, Legal Research: A Guide to Secondary Resources.

Instructor: Olivia Kane-Cruz. Olivia Kane-Cruz is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Olivia holds a B.A. in political science from Humboldt State University (Cal Poly Humboldt), a J.D. and a master’s in environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School, and a master’s in library and information science (M.L.I.S.) from the University of Washington.

Please register to join the Lunch and Learn webinar. 

An Orientation to Legal Research Webinar: U.S. Federal Statutes

Date: Thursday, November 5, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET

Content: The Orientation to Legal Research Series is designed to give a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques. This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. statutory and legislative research, including information about how to find and use the U.S. Code, the U.S. Statutes at Large, and U.S. federal bills and resolutions.

Instructor: Jason Zarin – Legal Reference Specialist. Jason has a B.A. in economics from Tufts University, an M.A. in economics from UCLA, a J.D. from the University of Southern California, an LL.M. in taxation from Georgetown University, and a Master of Science in information systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

Please register to join the Orientation to Legal Research webinar.

An Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinar featuring the State Law Library of Mississippi

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET

Content: The Orientation to Law Library Collections (OLLC) Webinar is designed for patrons familiar with legal research who would like an introduction to the Law Library of Congress’s collections and services. The purpose of the State Law Libraries Outreach Project is to strengthen the ties between the Law Library of Congress and state law libraries by sharing information about our collections, products, and services with one another and with the public. This project involves providing a guest spot for state law librarians, or their designees, to discuss the collections and services they offer during our OLLC webinars.

Instructor: Sarah Friedman. Sarah Friedman is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Sarah holds a B.A. in English literature and criticism from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.

Please register to join the Orientation to Law Library Collections webinar.

To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute. Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

What is the Election System in Israel?

Israel maintains a parliamentary system of government. In accordance with section 4 of the Basic Law: The Knesset, the Knesset is “elected in general, national, direct, equal, secret, and proportional elections, in accordance with the Knesset Election Law…”

How are Votes Distributed?

Israeli citizens vote for candidates’ lists (§ 5(a)), elected by their parties’ leaders or in primaries. The allocation of seats is regulated under sections 81-83 of the Knesset Election Law (Consolidated Version) 6729-1969. Representation in the Knesset requires a party list to pass a threshold currently set at 3.25% of the total valid votes. To determine representation in the Knesset, the total number of valid votes is divided by 120, and the whole number resulting from this division constitutes the “quotient.” The law provides that “each list participating in the allocation of seats shall be awarded several seats equal to the whole number resulting from dividing its valid votes by the quotient.” (§ 81.) Surplus votes that do not amount to a full seat will be divided under surplus-vote agreements between the parties, and if none exist, allocated to the lists whose vote counts are closest to the number required for a seat.

How is the Government Formed?

The government and its ministers are installed following a vote of confidence by at least 61 of the 120 Knesset members. No party has ever been able to obtain such a majority without entering coalition agreements with other parties. Political alliances guaranteed under such agreements typically require support for the government in exchange for ministerial portfolios and advancement of specified goals.

What is the Term of Office of a Government in Israel?

In accordance with the Basic Law: the Government, “[t]he Government holds office by virtue of the confidence of the Knesset” (§ 3). The Knesset’s term is defined by the Basic Law: the Knesset as “four years from the day on which it is elected” (§ 8). However, the Knesset may dissolve itself before the end of its term “by the adoption of a law on this matter by a majority of the Knesset Members.” (§ 34 Basic Law: the Knesset.)

The 2026 election is the first since 1988 to take place on its originally scheduled date under law, following successive governments that failed to complete their terms.

How is the Date of Election Determined?

Subject to special adjustment in the event of a leap year under the Jewish calendar, the elections to the Knesset will take place on the third Tuesday of the month of Heshvan, usually in October or November.

What is the Status of the Government After the Knesset Dissolves Itself?

Based on the principle of continuity of government, “the outgoing Government shall continue to perform its functions until the new Government is formed.” (Basic Law: the Government § 30 (b).) The outgoing government is considered an interim or transitional government (ממשלת מעבר). Israeli constitutional law does not recognize a special doctrine that reduces the powers of an interim government to routine operations only. Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ) has entertained various petitions regarding the scope of power of interim governments. For example, in a 2005 decision, the HCJ ruled that there was a direct correlation between the government’s duty to act and the duty to use restraint in any given case. The greater the degree of public interest in increasing governmental action, the required degree of restraint will decrease, and vice versa. (HCJ 8815/05 Landstein v. Spigler.)

Does Israel Recognize Absentee Ballots?

Israel does not recognize absentee ballots. In accordance with the Knesset Election Law (Consolidated Version) 6729-1969, voters must be present at a polling station and identify themselves. The location of the voter’s polling station is determined by the Central Election Committee according to a list of polling places provided to it by the Minister of Interior no later than the 80th day before election day, or at an earlier date at the request of the committee chairman. Special polling stations are provided to persons with disabilities and other qualifying groups.

Who is eligible to vote?

“To be included in the Electoral Register, a person must be an Israeli citizen on the day the register is retrieved … be registered, he and his address, in the electoral register as a resident … His 18th birthday falls no later than the date of the election.”

Are there Voter Identification Requirements?

A voter is required to identify him/herself to the polling committee using an Israeli identity card issued to Israeli residents, valid driver’s license, valid passport, valid personal military ID issued by the Israel Defense Forces, or Knesset member ID. (Knesset Election Law (Consolidated Version) 6729-1969, § 74.)

Additional Information

The Law Library of Congress website contains multiple resources on Israeli elections and election campaign Laws. For a list of relevant resources, see our blog post FALQs: Israel to Hold Elections on November 1, 2022: What Do You Need to Know (October 27, 2022).

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Please register to attend virtually. 

In an ever-electrified and digital world, the need and demand for rare minerals has increased exponentially in recent years. According to a Nordic Council study, the need for electric vehicle batteries alone will be 40 times higher by 2040. In an attempt to meet that demand, the European Union (EU) adopted the European Critical Raw Materials Act in 2024, calling upon EU member states to enable increased excavation of minerals and to support a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials within the EU.

Sweden and Finland hold some of the EU’s largest mineral deposits. But non-EU member Norway and Greenland (part of the Kingdom of Denmark) also hold substantial reserves of rare earth elements.

With an increasing demand for rare earth minerals, the establishment of the required mines comes into conflict with national rules for local self- determination and the right for local governments to determine how their land is used, evoking local “not-in-my-backyard” resistance.

Last year, the Swedish Parliament adopted legislation removing a 2018 ban on uranium mining, and earlier this year, the Swedish Parliament scrapped the municipal veto on uranium mining by reclassifying the establishment of such mines.

Much of the mineral-rich land in Norway, Sweden, and Finland is used for reindeer herding by the indigenous Sami population, requiring special considerations for consultations, both under domestic and international law, sparking local conflicts.

In this upcoming webinar, Senior Foreign Law specialist Elin Hofverberg will discuss how mineral excavation is regulated in the Nordics and how it relates to local self-determination. The webinar will compare legislation and regulatory approaches across the region and highlight relevant court decisions, including on the right of the local population and indigenous people to be consulted on or to veto the establishment and expansion of mines.

The webinar will be presented by Elin Hofverberg. Elin is a senior foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress who conducts research and writes reports on the laws of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, including European Union issues as they relate to these jurisdictions and international law. Elin holds a Master of Laws in international and comparative law from The George Washington University Law School and a Juris Doctor equivalent (Jur. kand.) from Uppsala University Law School, Sweden. Elin is a member of the New York State Bar and is qualified to practice law in Sweden.

To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute. Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or ada@loc.gov.

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

In the mid-18th century, the population of the British colonies in North America was still very small and overwhelmingly rural. There was some linguistic diversity, including meaningful pockets of colonists who spoke German, for instance, and Dutch. There were also some speakers of Swedish, French, and Scottish and Irish Gaelic, as well as Native American languages (e.g., of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Iroquoian language families) and West and Central African languages (e.g., Mandinka, Wolof, Yoruba, and Kongo). But these were a minority. The dominant English-speaking population spoke and read (when they read) only English, a fact that came to the fore, for instance, in political relations between English and German speakers in Pennsylvania. (Fogelman, pp. 116-145.)

For the colonial elite, however, books in foreign languages were not totally out of reach. In that era, wealthy Americans followed the humanistic ideal that learning the Greek and Latin classics should form the core of their children’s (especially their male children’s) education. (See generally, Richard.) To enroll in one of the colonial colleges, a young man was tested on his ability to read – without dictionary or assistance – passages of a Latin text, typically one of the classical authors, such as Julius Caesar or Cicero. (McAnear, p. 30.) Inveterate readers among the founding generation often bought and read European titles in their original languages. To take the example of Thomas Jefferson (who owned one of the largest private book collections of any American in his generation), a full 50% of his books were in languages other than English, with 20% in French and 10% in Latin and Greek.

But that level of educational attainment was very rare among Jefferson’s countrymen. There were nine colonial colleges which awarded in total somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500 degrees between 1745 and 1775. (McAnear, p. 40-41.) This was in a region whose population ranged from almost two million in the beginning of that period to nearly four million at its end. (Dexter, p. 49-50.) For the rest of the American reading public, a foreign title became accessible when someone in England published – and someone else imported – an affordable English translation.

It happens that at just about the middle of the 18th century, English printers began to notice and to capitalize on the existence of a large market for translations of foreign titles. Over the next several decades, they published a dramatically growing number of translations, especially from French, but from other languages as well. Novels made up a large part of this trend. (See generally, McMurran.) New foreign political and philosophical writings were also an important addition to the inventory of English booksellers.

This change created business opportunities for men of letters who had a knack for languages. Thomas Nugent (c. 1700-1772) was one such person. A native of Ireland, Nugent was already well into middle age when we have some record of his literary career. He was also, by then, based squarely in London. He resided at Gray’s Inn, one of London’s four historic Inns of Court, from at least the late 1740s until the end of his life, a period which coincided with Samuel Johnson’s residence at Gray’s Inn, as well as a brief stay by the Irish playwright and lawyer Arthur Murphy. (Rigg, p. 273.)

At the time Nugent began publishing translations, only a few foreign titles on natural rights or the natural law tradition were available in English; these were mainly books by Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf. Nugent made important steps toward changing this. He launched an intensive period of translation work in 1748, starting with translations of two books by Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1694-1748), the celebrated Genevan legal theorist. Burlamaqui had written a set of popular introductions to natural rights teachings that were meant to complement one another; the first, Principes du droit naturel (Principles of Natural Law), which was published in 1747, explained the moral underpinnings of human action and human society according to a version of natural law. The second book, Principes du droit politique (Principles of Political Law), published posthumously in 1751, expanded on these foundations to discuss society and the state and their relationship to moral considerations. Both were composed to digest the natural rights doctrines of Grotius, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Barbeyrac, Locke, and Hutchinson. Nugent’s translations were printed in 1748 and 1752, respectively.

During that project, the French political philosopher Montesquieu (1685-1755) published his celebrated De l’esprit des loix, (first anonymously) in 1748. That work described the natural play of forces at work inside of political regimes. Engaging with natural rights thought, Montesquieu argued that a mixed regime, one that separates and balances powers in society, was the best safeguard for political liberty. Nugent published his translation of that monumental title in 1750 under the title The Spirit of Laws.

In 1758, Emerich de Vattel, a Swiss philosopher and jurist (from Neuchatel), published Le Droit des gens, ou Principes de la loi naturelle, which outlined the rights and obligations that exist between sovereign states, including the laws of war and peace-making; the book offered a clearly written restatement of the natural law thinking of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. Some have asserted that the anonymous English translation that appeared in 1760 was prepared by Thomas Nugent.

Nugent was an energetic translator of other Enlightenment works as well. In 1756, he translated Étienne Bonnot de Condillac’s 1746 Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines as Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge. He published a translation of Voltaire’s 1756 Essai sur l’histoire générale et sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations: An essay on universal history, the manners, and spirit of nations, from the reign of Charlemaign to the age of Lewis XIV (London, 1759). According to some, he is responsible for the English translation of Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Extrait du project de paix perpétuelle de l’abbé de Saint-Pierre that was published under the title: A project for perpetual peace in 1761. He put his name to his translation of Rousseau’s Émile, ou De l’éducation, a title that was being publicly burned in France as Nugent worked to translate it: Emilius; or, An essay on education (London, 1763).

Several of these titles became critical sources of guidance for the generations that led America to independence and crafted the United States Constitution. We hear echoes of Burlamaqui, who was the first to talk about a right to pursue happiness, in the Declaration of Independence. One study shows that among American political writers in the 1780s, references to Montesquieu alone count for 60% of all citations to political theorists. (Lutz, p. 192.) Vattel’s was the single most consulted book on questions of international law among the framers. Benjamin Franklin noted that members of Congress were never without it. (Golove and Hulsebosch, p. 1846.) Among its readers was George Washington, who borrowed two volumes of the anonymous English translation of Vattel from the New York Society Library. They were due on November 2, 1789, but Washington, uncharacteristically, neglected to return them, an omission that only became known to historians in 1934.

While some of Nugent’s translation work was daring, these literary efforts did not, by and large, mark him out as a political firebrand. On the contrary, the University of Aberdeen recognized him for his contributions to the field of law with an honorary LLM in 1765. Nugent was also known as a travel writer and antiquarian, for which he was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1767. (Rigg, p. 273.) His book, The Grand Tour, which he published in 1749, related to the fashion of wealthy young adults from London spending a season or two traveling among the various cities of Western Europe. Nugent’s book offered helpful, and often quite straightforward guidance on what to expect in each region in terms of architecture, culture, customs, and even the human scenery. There is some dry humor in it as well.

Late in his career, he wrote Travels through Germany, with a Particular Account of the Courts of Mecklenburg: in a Series of Letters to a Friend (London, 1768), which was based on travels he undertook in preparation to write a history of the Vandals. He also translated a two-volume satirical account of travels in London by French author Pierre Jean Grosley. Among his many books, some were printed many times in England and in America as well. He published a French dictionary that was printed repeatedly even into the 20th century.

July 2026 marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Keep an eye out for more posts like this one that celebrate the Declaration, the lives of its signers, and the world in which they lived.

Secondary Sources:

• Douthwaite, William Ralph. Gray’s Inn: its history & associations, comp. from original and unpublished documents, by William Ralph Douthwaite, librarian. Reeves and Turner, London, 1886.
• Fogleman, Aaron Spencer. Hopeful Journeys: German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-1775 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).
• Golove, David M. and Hulsebosch, Daniel J. The Federalist Constitution as a Project in International Law,
  89 Fordham L. Rev. (2021) p. 1841.
• Lutz Donald S. The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought. American Political Science Review. vol. 78, no. 1, (1984), pp. 189-197.
• McAnear, Beverly. College Founding in the American Colonies, 1745-1775. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (June, 1955), pp. 24-44.
• McMurran, Mary Helen. The Spread of Novels: Translation and Prose Fiction in the Eighteenth Century. Princeton University Press, Princeton, c2010.
• Raven, James. The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade, 1450-1850. Yale University Press, New Haven, c. 2007.
• Richard, Carl J. The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1994.
• Rigg, James McMullen. “Nugent, Thomas, LL.D. (1700?–1772).” in Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, & co., London, 1885-1901, v. 41, p. 273.

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Describe your background.

I grew up in New Jersey and upstate New York and have lived in Chicago since 1990.

What is your academic/professional history?

I received my law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1993 and have worked as an immigration attorney since 1993. I also taught immigration law as part of a clinical instruction program at Chicago-Kent College of Law for five years and taught a doctrinal course in asylum and refugee law. I expect to receive my Master’s in library and information science from Indiana University in December of 2026, with a focus on law, government documents and academic librarianship.

How would you describe your job to other people?

My current job as an AHHA intern at the Law Library of Congress involves researching the legislative history that led to the building of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The goal is to compile a detailed legislative history, create an exhibit for the Law Library reading room using the library’s collections, and write a blog post describing the project.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

Receiving an offer to work as an intern at the Law Library of Congress was a dream come true. The Law Library itself has the largest collection of law materials in the world. It’s mission to provide research assistance to the United States Congress aligns strongly with my commitment to public service.  But more importantly, unlike many law libraries, which can be siloed off from other disciplines, the integration of the Law Library with other disciplines creates an environment of constant intellectual stimulation and opportunities to grow individually and to be part of a larger conversation within the institution about public service and access to information.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?

In my research for the project, I learned that the “inciting incident” for the creation of the Jefferson Building was a law signed by President Grant in 1870 giving the Library of Congress responsibility for all duties related to copyright and requiring applicants for copyright protection to send two copies of their work to the Librarian of the Library of Congress. As a result of this law, thousands of manuscripts and books began flooding the Capitol, creating a fire-hazard—and demands for a separate building to house the library’s rapidly expanding collections. I love the law of unintended consequences–a piece of legislation with an entirely different purpose led to the building of one the most iconic buildings in the United States.

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

I enjoy writing screen and stage plays in my spare time. I have had two short plays performed in ten minute theater festivals in Chicago, and one of my screenplays has placed highly in several screenwriting competitions.

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