I am especially grateful for the hospitality of George Washington University School of Law, where I had the inestimable privilege to be a Visiting Scholar during the major part of the research for this work, in 2009– 10. I am similarly grateful to my own institution, the University of Edinburgh School of Law, for granting the period of leave. My deepest thanks also go to that most magnifi cent resource, the National Library of Scotland. Im mense gratitude for assistance and inspiration of sundry kinds go (alphabetically) to the following: Kenneth Anderson, Christine Bell, Alan Boyle, Douglas Brodie, Stephanie Carvin, Michael and Linda Cosgrove, Steve Charnowitz, Paul J. du Plessis, Th omas Giegerich, William Gilmore, Peter Haggenmacher, James Harrison, Susan Karamanian, Carl Landauer, Euan MacDonald, Linda Mathison, Alexander McCall Smith, Sean Murphy, Cian O’Driscoll, Dinah Shelton, Frederick Shiels, Ralph Steinhardt, Simonetta Stirling, James Whitman, Arthur Wilmarth, and John Fabian Witt. A very special thanks goes to Kathleen McDermott at Harvard University Press, for her unfailing support, and even enthusiasm, for what some might think a quixotic enterprise. For editorial assistance, my thanks go to Kasey McCall- Smith. For assistance with German translations, I am particularly indebted to Simonetta Stirling and Rebecca Zahn, and to Simonetta Stirling for Italian. For proofreading par excellence (and so much else besides), my deepest gratitude goes to my wife, Nancy. Finally, it should be noted that this work is liberally suff used by the spirits of two great scholars and fi ne men whose parting is much lamented: Richard B. Lillich (1933– 96) and Daniel J. Boorstin (1914– 2004).