About Twelve Tables Press

Twelve Tables Press is a small press located in Manhattan's historic printing district. The press was founded with a unique intent -- to chronicle and champion the individuals in law who have made a mark on our society, as scholars, eyewitnesses, or pioneers in shaping the United States legal system. The press publishes original works by and about America's leaders in law that inform the general public, students, attorneys, and other professionals of the historical events, people, opinions, and writings that have changed and defined American law, jurisprudence, and society. Twelve Tables Press showcases the individual author with a story to tell, rich, personal texts that offer a glimpse into the art of lawyering.

Each book celebrates the uncommon vision, strength and conviction of great legal scholars, trial lawyers, politicians, and the common men and women who have shaped modern American legal thought and history. Representative titles include the reissue of Brown v. Board of Education plaintiff’s attorney Jack Greenberg’s classic, Crusader in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement (2004) and the groundbreaking efforts of Catharine MacKinnon’s Legal Memos That Changed the World (upcoming). Both titles reflect Twelve Tables' conviction that today's legal history publishing need not be distant, disinterested, passionless, or even in the past. What brings legal historical events and pioneering jurisprudence to life is the passion of the individuals behind these landmark trials, writings, and social movements, an Emersonian passion that speaks to what is "true for all men[and women]."

We hope these publications will provoke thought, passion, and reading pleasure. They were designed to be read by lawyers and non-lawyers alike, for the student, scholar and historian in all of us. Enjoy.

Law of the Twelve Tables

Engraved on Twelve Tablets of Bronze, known as the earliest codification of ancient Roman law, traditionally dated to 451–450 BC. They were purportedly written at the demand of the plebeians, who felt that their legal rights were hampered by the fact that court judgments were rendered according to unwritten custom preserved only within a small group of learned patricians. Venerated by the Romans as a prime legal source, the Twelve Tables were superseded by later changes in Roman law but were never formally abolished.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2003. Encyclopedia Britannica.