Category: Legal Update

Now Online: The Year Book of the Selden Society

Emollit Mores Nec Sinit Esse Feros. Universitas Carolin Merid. 1801 Eagle flies over two human figures greeting each other
The seal of the University of South Carolina appears on the front cover of the current edition of the South Carolina Law Review.

The South Carolina Law Review was called the Year Book of the Selden Society from 1937 to 1948. At the time, it was published by the USC School of Law’s student chapter of the Selden Society, which remains a learned society and publisher focused on English legal history.

As far as the University of South Carolina law librarians are aware, South Carolina’s Year Book of the Selden Society has never been digitized and is not searchable in any online database such as Westlaw, Lexis, or HeinOnline.

Now Online
UofSC University Libraries Home | About | FAQ | My Account Search Enter Search terms: in this series
Enter search terms to search across all volumes of the Year Book of the Selden Society.

Thanks to the digitization work of law librarians Lillian Bates and Michael Mounter, the Year Book of the Selden Society is now freely available online.

The searchable PDFs are available as a special collection within the USC School of Law’s Scholar Commons site: scholarcommons.sc.edu/law.

Articles and Comments

    The scholarly articles in the Year Book remain of interest today. For example, Validity of Parking Meter Ordinances by Felix B. Greene, Jr., appears in the January 1940 issue.

22 Year Book of the Selden Society Validity of Parking Meter Ordinances Felix B. Greene, Jr. On November 27, 1939, 1200 parking meters were placed in operation on certain principal streets in the City of Columbia. Several hours later Associate Justice D. Gordon Baker of the South Carolina Supreme Court granted a rule to show cause why a temporary restraining injunction should not be granted.
Opening lines of Felix B. Greene, Jr., Validity of Parking Meter Ordinances, 4 Y.B. Selden Soc’y 22, 22 (1940).

Overall, the Year Book‘s commentary on South Carolina legislation and case law of the years 1937 to 1948 may be unparalleled.

Historical Notes

Dr. Mounter notes that the Year Book collection includes interesting historical material about the USC School of Law and the legal profession in South Carolina.

Read a history of the School of Law as well as memorial biographies of SC Bar members and USC Law professors in the Legal History and Biography sections in Volumes 1-3 of the Year Book.

Discover what was going on at the School of Law in the Editorial Section of Volumes 3-9 of the Year Book.

70 Selden Society Year Book We are very proud of our teaching staff and of that greatest of all assets in the Law School--the student body--composed of eager, well-qualified, and interested students; but our work is under a heavy handicap in view of the fact that our building could reasonably be made to accommodate only about 75 students. Yet, during the past year the enrollment was something over 200, and the indicated enrollment for the school year beginning in September is over 300.
The Editorial Section of Volume 9 (September 1947) describes a law school building far too small for the enrolled class. The law school has moved three times since then, to larger and larger buildings.
Advertisements Included

The digitized pages of the Year Book even include the original advertisements. Some of the products are no longer used by today’s lawyers. Others, such as Shepard’s Citations and the West Key Number System, have been updated for the digital age and are still very much in use today.

top: LexisNexis logo Shepard's(R) Citations Service Is it good law? Shepardize(R) and be sure. Modern graphic showing Citing Decisions Shepardize(R) document button bottom: Write To Us For This Booklet black and white booklet SHEPARD'S CITATIONS
Shepard’s Citations currently, and as advertised in the Year Book of the Selden Society
top: Thomson Reuters Westlaw Precision golden key logo West Key Number System various links and search bars bottom: yellowed page WEST PUBLISHING key outline with West Key Number System printed inside it
West Key Number System currently, and as advertised in the Year Book of the Selden Society
Ask A Librarian

If you would like a consultation on the Year Book of the Selden Society collection, or other special collections, or Shepard’s, or Key Numbers, your law librarians are eager to hear from you. Ask a Librarian.