James Kent’s four volume Commentaries on American Law is one of the foremost works of legal scholarship in American history. Kent’s work is based on lectures he gave at Columbia College, the culmination of a 40-year career studying and practicing law in New York. The commentaries discuss the connection between various areas of law operative in the United States, such as constitutional law, state law, international law, individual rights, common law, and commercial law. Kent’s work was distinguished for its discussions of equity law, the field in which he had specialized while serving on the New York Court of Chancery. The work was one of the most widely studied texts on American law by jurists in the antebellum period, and it remains important for scholars and lawyers who are interested in the sources and development of early American jurisprudence.