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Rare Books & Book Collections

The Law Libraries' rare and named book collections include four collections: two general law collections and two collections focused on Native American and indigenous peoples, with a special focus on the Haudenosaunee.

  • The Morris L. Cohen Rare Book Collection

    The Morris L. Cohen Rare Book Collection consists principally of seventeenth- through nineteenth-century English and American legal sources, although volumes in French, German, and Spanish are also present. While modest in comparison to the rare book collections at other major law schools, it features a wide representation of early English treatises, generally regarded as the origins of the Anglo-American legal system. Two of the more important treatises included are Sir Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England (published in 1628-1644 in four parts) and Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (published 1765-1769 in four volumes).

  • Howard R. Berman Collection

    The Berman Book Collection contains Howard R. Berman's extensive private collection of books on Native Americans and indigenous peoples. Berman was a former University at Buffalo, Harvard Law, and California Western Law School professor. He was an early leader in the development of law on the rights of indigenous peoples. His interests also included comparative law, international environmental law, international law, international trade and property.

  • Iroquois Books of Marilyn L. Haas

    Marilyn Haas received her A.B. from the University of Missouri and her M.L.S. from the New York State University College at Geneseo. She was a member of the University Libraries faculty at the University at Buffalo from 1967 to 1992. As a Reference Librarian in Lockwood Library, she developed an expertise in American Indian sources. While compiling a book on the Seneca and Tuscarora Indians, Marilyn became enamored of the books themselves. She bought new works as they came out and haunted used bookstores for out of print titles. While hoping to find a copy of every title in her annotated bibliography, some she could not find and others were too expensive, but that is the genesis of her Iroquois Collection.

  • John Lord O'Brian Papers

    The papers of John Lord O'Brian are housed in the Law Library Archives.