In the early evening of November 23, 1770, a group of lawyers gathered at a tavern in lower Manhattan in New York City. Located on the lower part of Broadway, the King’s Arms was kept by Edward Bardin, who had been in New York since 1764.1 The lawyers, all men, met that night to launch a members only club dedicated to their professional interests, “Conversation, and…mutual Improvement.”2 The club, known as “the Moot,” would meet somewhat regularly on a monthly basis to discuss legal topics until April 1775, when political and social events in the colonies overtook the more mundane business of a private bar group. Given the Moot’s membership, which included the likes of John Jay, Benjamin Kissam, William Livingston, Richard Morris, John Tabor Kempe, James Duane, John Morin Scott, and Robert R. Livingston Jr., and their involvement in the matters at hand, it is not surprising that the organization quietly dissolved. But while it remained active, the Moot enabled them to debate interesting questions of law, which helps us understand the issues on the minds of this group of prosperous and ambitious lawyers as New York approached the Revolution. The existence and activities of the Moot have appeared sporadically over the years in various pieces of scholarship and in different contexts. For example, in addition to identifying the Moot’s membership and rules, Paul Hamlin tells us that the group, “for the first time in the history of the colony endeavored to solve the province’s juridical problems scientifically,”3 and served as a model for later state bar associations.4 Moreover, Hamlin claims that the Moot’s members were “the first law reporters in New York.”5 Milton Klein calls the Moot “a seminar in legal education,”6 and points out that “even the justices of the [New …

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模拟法庭：1770 年代早期的纽约殖民地律师俱乐部

1770 年 11 月 23 日傍晚，一群律师聚集在纽约市曼哈顿下城的一家小酒馆。King's Arms 位于百老汇的下部，由爱德华·巴丁 (Edward Bardin) 保管，他自 1764 年以来一直在纽约。 ……相互改进。”2 被称为“Moot”的俱乐部每月都会定期开会讨论法律话题，直到 1775 年 4 月，当时殖民地的政治和社会事件取代了私人酒吧集团更为平凡的业务. 鉴于模拟法庭的成员包括 John Jay、Benjamin Kissam、William Livingston、Richard Morris、John Tabor Kempe、James Duane、John Morin Scott 和 Robert R. Livingston Jr.，而他们卷入了手头的事情，组织悄然解散也就不足为奇了。但是，虽然它仍然活跃，但模拟法庭使他们能够辩论有趣的法律问题，这有助于我们了解当纽约接近革命时这群繁荣而雄心勃勃的律师心中的问题。多年来，模拟法庭的存在和活动偶尔出现在各种学术领域和不同的背景下。例如，除了确定模拟法庭的成员资格和规则外，保罗·哈姆林告诉我们，该团体“在殖民地历史上第一次努力科学地解决该省的司法问题”3，并为后来的研究树立了榜样。州律师协会。 4 此外，