Headshot of John R. Pagan

John R. Pagan

University Professor Emeritus
  • Profile

    Professor John Pagan is a University Professor Emeritus and served as Dean of the Law School from 1997-2003. He teaches and writes in the areas of legal history, constitutional law, and sexuality and the law. Professor Pagan's book, Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia, won the American Historical Association's James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History.  

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    • Awards

      Huntington Library Quarterly Centennial Essay Honorable Mention (2021)

    • Presentations

      Presenter, "Religious Freedom, Conscience Clauses, or Licenses to Discriminate? Emerging Trends in Virginia and Beyond," Equality Under the Law Symposium, Equality Bar Association, Richmond (March 2016)

    • Memberships

      Member, Association of Marshall Scholars


      Member, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society


      Member, Phi Beta Kappa

    • Professional Experience

      University Professor Emeritus (2018 - present)
      University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA


      University Professor (2003 - 2018)
      University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA


      Dean and Professor of Law (1997 - 2003)
      University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA


      Global Professor and Director of the Global Law School Program (1996 - 1997)
      New York University School of Law, New York, NY


      Professor of Law (1986 - 1995)
      University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR


      Associate Professor of Law (1984 - 1986)
      University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR


      Associate Professor of Law (1983 - 1984)
      College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA


      Assistant Professor of Law (1979 - 1983)
      College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA


      Clerk, the Hon. Ozell M. Trask (1978 - 1979)
      U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

  • Publications
    Books

    Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia (Oxford University Press) (2003).

    Journal Articles

    Poor Babes, Desperate Mothers: Concealment of Dead Newborns in Early Virginia, 84 Huntington Library Quarterly 247 (2021).

    Arkansas Courts and Covenants Not to Compete, 12 University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Journal 57 (1989).

    Civil Rights and Personal Injuries: Virginia's Statute of Limitations for Section 1983 Suits, 26 William and Mary Law Review 199 (1985).

    Eleventh Amendment Analysis, 39 Arkansas Law Review 447 (1985).

    Dutch Maritime and Commercial Activity in Mid-Seventeenth Century Virginia, 90 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 485 (1982).

    English Carriers' Common-Law Right to Reject Undeclared Cargo: The Myth of the Closed-Container Conundrum, 23 William and Mary Law Review 791 (1982).

    Fourth Amendment Finality, 15 Arkansas Lawyer 168 (1981).

    Private Rights and Public Forums: Classifying Plaintiffs in Virginia Defamation Suits, 7 Virginia Bar Association Journal 8 (with Richard Walck) (1981).

    State Courts and Federlism in the 1980's: Introduction, 22 William and Mary Law Review 599 (1981).

    Growth of the Tobacco Trade between London and Virginia, 1614-40, 3 Guildhall Studies in London History 248 (1979).

    Book Chapters

    Loyalty and Insecurity in Charles II's Virginia, in Loyalty to the Monarchy in Late Medieval and Early Modern Britain, c.1400-1688 (Palgrave Macmillan) (Matthew Hefferan et al., eds.) (2020).

    English Statutes in Virginia, 1660-1714, in "Esteemed Bookes of Lawe" and the Legal Culture of Early Virginia (University of Virginia Press) (Warren M. Billings et al., eds.) (2017).

    Book Reviews

    Book Review - Johnson's “Irreconcilable Founders: Spencer Roane, John Marshall, and the Nature of America’s Constitutional Republic” , 129 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 391 (2021).

    Book Review - Finkleman's "Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation's Highest Court", 127 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 76 (2019).

    Book Review – Lowe’s “Murder in the Shenandoah: Making Law Sovereign in Revolutionary Virginia”, 127 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 245 (2019).

    Book Review - Bilder's "Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention", 124 Virginia Magazine of History & Biography 69 (2016).

    Book Review – Pasley’s “The First Presidential Contest: 1796 and the Founding of American Democracy", 119 American Historical Review 1688 (2014).

    Book Review - Crane's "Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores: Common Law and Common Folk in Early America", 117 The American Historical Review 1583 (2012).

    Book Review – Foster’s “Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America”, 95 The Journal of American History 179 (2008).

    Book Review – Brewer’s “By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority", 113 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 413 (2005).

    Book Review – Snyder’s “Brabbling Women: Disorderly Speech and the Law in Early Virginia", 111 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 301 (2003).

    Book Review – Billings’s “The Papers of Francis Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham, 1643-1695", 98 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 514 (1990).

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