Daniel W. Hamilton

Associate Dean for Faculty Development
Professor of Law and History

Professor Daniel W. Hamilton joined the Illinois faculty in 2008 from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he served as an assistant professor and co-director of the Institute for Law and the Humanities. Professor Hamilton received his Ph.D. in American legal history in 2003 from Harvard University, where he was a resident tutor in history and law at Harvard College. He received his J.D. from George Washington University and his bachelor's from Oberlin College. He was a Golieb Fellow in Legal History at New York University School of Law during the 2003-04 academic year. He teaches property law, legal history, and constitutional law.

His research presentations include talks at the American Society for Legal History, the Law and Society Association, New York University School of Law, and several guest lectures at Harvard Law School. In the fall of 2007, Professor Hamilton taught a course on "American Legal History, 1860-1969: From the Civil War to the Warren Court."

Professor Hamilton researches and writes primarily on American property ideology and the legal and constitutional issues raised by the Civil War. In only four years as a professor, Professor Hamilton has written numerous articles and reviews on American legal history, including works in Civil War History, the Chicago-Kent Law Review, the Journal of Supreme Court History, the Journal of American History, the Journal of Southern History, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, the Journal of National Security Law, and the Law and History Review. His book, The Limits of Sovereignty: Property Confiscation in the Union and the Confederacy During the Civil War, was published last year by the University of Chicago Press.