W&L Law’s Fraley Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant to Ireland
Jill Fraley, assistant professor of law at Washington and Lee University, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant to Trinity College in Dublin during the 2014–15 academic year.
During her Fulbright, Fraley will conduct research on the development of property law in colonial Scotland and Ireland. She will also deliver several public lectures.
A legal historian who focuses her research on property and environmental issues, Fraley is currently at work on a book manuscript titled “The Tragedy of the Wastes: A History of Least-Valued Properties and the Making of Nation-States in Eighteenth Century North America.” Her research on England’s colonization of Scotland and Ireland will explore how Great Britain transported its own property law system as it expanded to other territories, including North America.
“By uncovering a history of how English colonists employed the concept of waste within Ireland and Scotland prior to the colonization of North America and other distant lands, this project will elucidate the evolution of their strategy for land claiming, particularly as European powers increasingly competed for territory,” Fraley says.
Fraley is a graduate of Yale University, where she completed dual programs in History and Religious Studies. She received her J.D. from Duke University, after which she practiced law for more than six years, working primarily in toxic torts and premises liability. She eventually returned to the academy, receiving an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.
Fraley has taught at the University of Kentucky, the University of Kentucky Law School and Yale Law School. At W&L, she teaches property, environmental law, law & geography and legal history. Her recent writings focus on the legal history of Appalachia, property, cartography and the development of territorial jurisdiction.
The Fulbright Program is America’s flagship international educational exchange program, and is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grants are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program.
