The Association for the Study of Connecticut History (ASCH), the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society, and the University of Connecticut Law School are holding a one-day conference on Connecticut constitutional history to focus both on the State’s first modern constitution of 1818 and on constitutional and legal history from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The meeting will feature concurrent sessions by speakers from different backgrounds on a variety of subjects.

In 2007, significant works edited by Douglas Arnold and Richard Buel, Jr. on the debates concerning and events surrounding Connecticut’s 1818 Constitution are being published. These books form the centerpiece for discussion of the significance of the 1818 Constitution in the constitutional history of Connecticut and constitutional and legal issues relating to this document and not anticipated by it.

Researchers are invited to submit proposals addressing specific aspects of Connecticut’s constitutional and legal history from the time of the Fundamental Orders and Charter of 1662 to the Constitution of 1965, including but not limited to issues like government under the Fundamental Orders and Charter, the reasons for a new constitution in 1818, disestablishment, amendments to the Constitution of 1818, the work of the Connecticut Supreme Court and other courts, voting rights and representation, and the social impact of constitutional and legal developments in 19th and 20th century Connecticut.