Tax Stories and Tax Histories: Is There a Role for History in Shaping Tax Law?

摘要

The teaching of law is usually rather ahistorical. Teachers commonly focus on current doctrine and policy debates, discarding on the \u22garbage pile of history\u22 any law that has been repealed or superseded. And yet, much of law teaching is still based on reading cases. And cases are by definition historical artifacts - they arise from a specific time and place, and reflect a frequently long-gone historical context. Thus, it is hard to imagine a modern law course completely devoid of history, even if the history gets short shrift. A constitutional law course, for example, will likely include some discussion of Marbury v. Madison,\u27 but it is unlikely that the teacher will have time to discuss the historical origins of the case in the conflict between Federalists and Jeffersonians at any length.