author

Lucilius A. (Lucilius Alonzo) Emery

1840–1920

A Maine jurist and legal thinker, he spent decades on the state’s highest court and later turned big questions about law, rights, and justice into clear, serious prose. His writing carries the voice of someone who had lived inside the law and wanted to explain not just how it worked, but why it mattered.

1 Audiobook

Concerning Justice

Concerning Justice

by Lucilius A. (Lucilius Alonzo) Emery

About the author

Born in Carmel, Maine, in 1840, Lucilius Alonzo Emery graduated from Bowdoin College in 1861, read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1863. He built his early career in Ellsworth, then moved through public service as a Maine state senator and Maine attorney general before joining the bench.

Emery served on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from 1883 to 1911, including his final years as chief justice. That long judicial career made him one of the state’s leading legal figures of his era, with a reputation tied closely to constitutional questions and public law.

After retiring from the court, he continued writing and lecturing. His best-known book, Concerning Justice, grew out of lectures delivered at Yale Law School in 1914, and his published work also included a Harvard Law Review article on the right to keep and bear arms. He died in 1920.