"Vermont Lease Lands and Other Ancient Vermont Laws"
Ethan Allen Homestead Museum – Sunday Jan 15th - 2:00 pm
History never dies. It just waits in shadow until it leaps out into our lives. So with lease lands, those large parcels set aside by the proprietors of the towns for public purposes, including the school, the church, and others. The ownership of these lands remains with the town, but many people aren’t aware of that. They are discovering the special challenges of owning lease lands.
Early Vermont law is not homogenous and uniform, the way much of modern law has become. It was unique, because it was often invented without any precedent, tradition, or model to fit the needs of this new and independent state. The choices that the first legislatures and courts made remain a part of present day jurisprudence. We only need to scrape the surface of the statutes and precedents to see the debt the present owes the past. Ready?
- Paul Gillies is a lawyer/historian from Berlin, Vermont, who has written and lectured on early Vermont law. He is the author of "Uncommon Law, Ancient Roads, and Other Ruminations" on Vermont Legal History, published by the Vermont Historical Society in 2013.
(This talk might be of added interest given this week's "Seven Days" article regarding the leased land controversy along Lakeshore Drive in Malletts Bay.
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