The Bookshelf...Legal origins of Hawaii

As a counterpart to its Just in... posts on newly received items, First Reading launches The Bookshelf... to highlight books of note in the Library's collection. Our first selection is one of the oldest publications in the Library and an important reference source:

The Fundamental Law of Hawaii, published in 1904, was compiled by Lorrin A. Thurston. It is a valuable assemblage of thirteen early legal documents, from the first Constitution of Kamehameha III (1840) to the Organic Act which made Hawaii a Territory (1900). As stated in the Preface: "...the Organic Act specifically re-enacts the great body of pre-existing Hawaiian statute law, which was based upon the several Hawaiian Constitutions and organic laws....They are nearly all published, however, in books now out of print and in scattered volumes....it is believed that the public interest requires the re-publication, in convenient reference form, of what may be called the fundamental law of Hawaii." Included are the first laws of Hawaii (1833-1842), four subsequent constitutions, and congressional documents relating to the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. Mr. Thurston indexed each document separately. Noncirculating (KFH30.5 T48 1904).