Super thrilled to be a part of this cohort! Thank you!

Thank you @lawandhistrev.bsky.social for giving my article a home and for the thorough review and feedback!

Her article examines “how and why custom was declared dead in America while also advocating for its revival.” It includes an interesting anecdote about Taylor Swift’s attempt to enclose the beach around her holiday house in Rhode Island. A must read!

As I was doing the final revisions, I came across a fascinating analysis by legal scholar @marciazug.bsky.social published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review: “In My Defense, I Have None”: Taylor Swift, Indian Law, and a Re-Examination of Custom’s Inapplicability in the United States.

Hartog’s New York case exposes that courts did not simply prohibit customary practices but rendered the claims underlying them legally unintelligible.

Marx’s Prussian case reveals a direct subordination of the legislative apparatus to propertied interests. For Thompson, law is neither a neutral arbiter nor merely an instrument of ruling-class domination; it is constrained by its own claims to justice

At the same time, these accounts also show that a broadly similar assault on customary claims took different forms across contexts.

I discuss how practices long regarded as customary rights by the poor and unpropertied were reclassified as crimes and public nuisances in all three cases.

New month, new article! The Law and History Review is excited to announce the publication of the next article in our digital imprint, The Docket. Wesleyan's Basak Kus (@basakkus.bsky.social) examines the history of customs, law, and poverty, and how contemporary case law echoes that history.

@wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social

This November, I’ll have the honor of hosting the 2026 Shasha Seminar on The New Global Economic Order At Wesleyan. I can’t quite believe we’ve managed to bring all these brilliant minds together. I’ll share the website and registration details soon. For now, a little teaser!