The Evolution of the Constitutions of Virginia

Join the Virginia Law Foundation and the Library of Virginia for an engaging exploration of Virginia’s seven constitutions and their enduring influence on law, government, and civil rights. This program will examine the historical moments that produced each constitution, Virginia’s role in shaping American constitutional principles, and the continuing impact on modern legal practice and public policy.  

Attorneys and history enthusiasts alike will gain valuable insight into the constitutional foundations that continue to shape Virginia law today. This public program is open to all and will begin with an hour of coffee and community, followed by presentations by University of Virginia law professor A.E. Dick Howard and historian Brent Tarter, as well as a special opportunity to view original constitutional and related documents from the Library of Virginia’s archives. 

Why Attend?

• Explore the history and evolution of Virginia’s constitutions and their impacts on jurisprudence in the citizenry of the Commonwealth.
• Attend in person for an opportunity to interact with the constitutions following the program.

Virginia has had seven constitutions since 1776 (1776, 1830, 1851, 1868, 1902, 1928, and 1971)—more than any other state—with each reflecting a turning point in both state and national constitutional development. This seminar examines the historical context, structural features, and lasting legal effects of Virginia’s constitutions, with particular attention to how they shaped civil rights, governance, suffrage, local power, judicial interpretation, and legal practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and distinguish the seven Virginia constitutions and the historical forces that produced them.
• Explain how Virginia’s constitutional design influenced the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
• Analyze the legal and social consequences of constitutional provisions governing suffrage, race, and separation of powers.
• Apply Virginia constitutional principles to modern litigation, statutory construction, and public law issues.
• Recognize recurring constitutional themes that continue to shape Virginia law.

Registration Deadlines:

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE^®.

Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.

Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email deanna.mcglothlin@vacle.org.

MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.

Private recording of this program is prohibited.

Can’t Attend?

E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.

Course Schedule

• Q&A will be handled via chat room for Webcast attendees.

Faculty

Professor A. E. Dick Howard, University of Virginia School of Law and Public Affairs / Charlottesville

Brent Tarter, Library of Virginia / Chesterfield

About the Speakers

Professor A. E. Dick Howard, University of Virginia School of Law and Public Affairs / Charlottesville

Professor A. E. Dick Howard is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Professor Howard is a graduate of the University of Richmond and received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he read philosophy, politics, and economics. After graduating from law school, he was a law clerk to Mr. Justice Hugo L. Black of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Active in public affairs, Professor Howard was executive director of the commission that wrote Virginia’s new Constitution and directed the successful referendum campaign for ratification of that constitution. He has been counsel to the General Assembly of Virginia and a consultant to state and federal bodies, including the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. From 1982 to 1986, he served as Counselor to the Governor of Virginia, and he chaired Virginia’s Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.

Professor Howard has been twice a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in Washington, D.C. His recognitions have included election as president of the Virginia Academy of Laureates and his having received the University of Virginia’s Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching. James Madison University, the University of Richmond, Campbell University, the College of William and Mary, Longwood University, and Wake Forest University have conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In the fall of 2001, he was the first Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Residence at Rhodes House, Oxford.

An authority in constitutional law, Professor Howard is the author of a number of books, articles, and monographs. These include The Road from Runnymede: Magna Carta and Constitutionalism in America and Commentaries on the Constitution of Virginia, which won a Phi Beta Kappa prize. Other works include Democracy’s Dawn and Constitution-making in Eastern Europe.

Professor Howard has briefed and argued cases before state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a regular guest on television news programs; during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, Professor Howard did gavel-to-gavel coverage for the McNeil-Lehrer News Program. He did interviews with the justices for a film shown to visitors to the Supreme Court’s building in Washington.

Often consulted by constitutional draftsmen in other states and abroad, Professor Howard has compared notes with revisors at work on new constitutions in such places as Brazil, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Albania, Malawi, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In 1996, the Union of Czech Lawyers, citing Professor Howard’s “promotion of the idea of a civil society in Central Europe,” awarded him their Randa Medal—the first time this honor has been conferred upon anyone but a Czech citizen. In 2004, the Greater Richmond Chapter of the World Affairs Council conferred on him their George C. Marshall Award in International Law and Diplomacy. The National Constitution Center and the University of Pennsylvania Law School appointed Professor Howard as their visiting scholar for 2009–10, the theme for the year being global constitutionalism.

In January 1994, Washingtonian magazine named Professor Howard as “one of the most respected educators in the nation.” In 2007, the Library of Virginia and the Richmond Times-Dispatch included Professor Howard on their list of the “greatest Virginians” of the 20th century. In 2013 the University of Virginia conferred on Professor Howard its Thomas Jefferson Award—the highest honor the University confers upon a member of the faculty. Each year, Virginia’s General Assembly names one person as that year’s Outstanding Virginian; in 2025, the legislators named Professor Howard.

Brent Tarter, Library of Virginia / Chesterfield

Brent Tarter is a retired senior editor at the Library of Virginia, the founding editor of the Library of Virginia’s Dictionary of Virginia Biography, and a cofounder of the annual Virginia Forum. He is the author of A Saga of the New South: Race, Law, and Public Debt in Virginia and Virginians and Their Histories. He lives and writes in Chesterfield, Virginia.