Although New York adopted the Declaration of Independence at a meeting of the Fourth Provincial Congress in White Plains on July 9, 1776, it was not until November 25, 1783 that British troops finally departed from New York. In the midst of the ongoing war, New York drafted and adopted its first constitution, and set up a functioning government.
First Constitution
The New York State Constitution of 1777 continued the English statutory and common law then in force in the Province of New York, provided that it did not conflict with the State’s constitution. In 1788, chapter 46 of the laws enacted that year rendered English statutory law invalid, providing that “none of the statutes of England or Great Britain shall operate or be considered as laws of this State.” The common law was unaffected by this provision, and the State’s second constitution, adopted in 1822, stated that “such parts of the common law and the acts of the legislature of the colony of New York would continue unless altered or repealed or found unconstitutional.”
New York Case Law Develops
Looking at cases decided in those first 70 years, we can see how the New York judiciary resolved the issues encountered by the nascent State. The impact of the War of 1812 and the growing importance of international relations is readily apparent. Case law from this time shows the ongoing chilling effect of criminal libel actions on political speech, and controversies arising from slavery and colonial land tenure continued to populate court dockets. Judicial resolution of cases associated with New York’s growing industrialization and rapidly-developing technology (canals, roads, steamboats and railways) enabled commerce to thrive.
The State and the Nation
The Bench and the Bar included men of outstanding intellect and achievement, who made a tremendous and lasting contribution to the State and the Nation. In their capable hands, jurisprudence developed through the arguments lawyers presented in court and the judicial decisions that resulted. New York’s involvement in the development of the legal framework of the new nation, the ratification of the Federal Constitution and the drafting of Bill of Rights was significant and of lasting value.
Important Cases
Animal Law
Comity of Laws
Conflict of Laws
Court Jurisdiction
Criminal Law
Eminent Domain
Employment Law
Family Law
International Law
Military Law
Public Property — Streets
Slavery
Evidence — Scientific
Tort Law
Seditious Libel
Courts of the Era
Judges of the Era
New York Supreme Court of Judicature
William W. Van Ness
1807-1822
1776-1823 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1807-1822 William W. Van Ness was born in Claverack, NY, in ...
Joseph Christopher Yates
1808-1822
1768-1837 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, 1808-1822 Joseph Christopher Yates was born on November 9, ...
Jonas Platt
1814-1823
1776-1834 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, 1814-1823 Jonas Platt was born on June 30, 1776 ...
James Kent
1814-1823
1763-1847 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1798-1804 Chief Justice of New York, 1804-1814 Chancellor of New York, ...
John Woodworth
1819-1828
1768-1858 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1819-1828 John Woodworth was born on November 12, 1768 in Schodack, ...
Ambrose Spencer
1819-1823
1765-1848 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, 1804-1819 Chief Justice, 1819-1823 Justice Ambrose Spencer was born ...
History of the Supreme Court
Duely & Constantly Kept: A History of the New York Supreme Court, 1691-1847
New York Chancellors
Important Figures
New York Attorneys General, 1777-1846
Samuel A. Talcott
1821-1829
1789-1836 Attorney General of New York, 1821-1829 Samuel Austin Talcott, born on December 31, 1789 in Hartford, Connecticut, was a ...
Willis Hall
1838-1847
1801-1868 Attorney General of New York, 1838-1847 Willis Hall was born in Granville, New York on April 1, 1801. He ...
George P. Barker
1842-1845
1807-1848 Attorney General of New York, 1842-1845 George Payson Barker was born on October 25, 1807, in Rindge, New Hampshire ...
Samuel Beardsley
1844-1847
1790-1860 Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1844-1847 Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1847 Samuel ...
Greene Carrier Bronson
1847-1859
1789-1863 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, 1836-1845 Chief Justice, 1845-1847 Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, ...
District Attorneys, 1777-1846
Notable Attorneys
About the Period
New York Constitutions of 1777 & 1821
The New York Constitution of 1777 (Courtesy NYS Archives)
The New York Constitution of 1777 (Transcript)
The New York Bill of Rights of 1787
1801 Constitutional Amendments
New York Constitution of 1821 (Transcript)
Excerpts from Charles Z. Lincoln’s Constitutional History of New York
Courtesy the New York State Library
Commentary on the 1st NY Constitution
Commentary on the 1787 Bill of Rights
Commentary on the 1801 Amendments to the NY Constitution
Commentary on the 2nd NY Constitution
Other Constitutional Commentaries
The New York State Constitution, 2nd Edition, by Peter J. Galie & Christopher Bopst (London: Oxford University Press, 2012)
New York and the Ratification of the Federal Constitution
The United States Constitution, New York’s Ratification Statement and Instructions to the New York Delegates & Transcript
An Empire of Reason (Video)
A Rein on Government: New York’s Constitution of 1777 and Bill of Rights of 1787 by John P. Kaminski, New York Legal History Vol. 1, No. 1 (2005)
New York State’s Role in the Creation and Adoption of the Bill of Rights by Betsy L. Rosenblatt, New York History (October 1991), pp. 407-420
(The definitive work on New York’s ratification of the Constitution is: The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution: Ratification by the States: New York, Volumes XIX-XXIII, edited by John P. Kaminski et al (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2005))