2026 SESSION
ENROLLED
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 99
Commending the University of Virginia School of Law.
Agreed to by the Senate, February 12, 2026
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 16, 2026
WHEREAS, the University of Virginia School of Law, the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the United States, has upheld a strong commitment to excellence in legal education for more than 200 years; and
WHEREAS, the Virginia General Assembly established the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1819, with branches of study including civil government, the law of nature and nations, and municipal law; and
WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison took more of an active role in shaping the law curriculum at UVA than they did with any other department, most especially in seeking out and scrutinizing candidates for the first law professorship; and
WHEREAS, in April 1826, Thomas Jefferson announced the hiring of John Tayloe Lomax, a Fredericksburg lawyer, as UVA's first law professor; and
WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson selected most of the books for UVA's original library, including the library's legal texts, and he and James Madison created a list of required readings on principles of government, including Algernon Sidney's Discourses on Government, John Locke's “An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government,” The Federalist Papers , the Virginia Resolution of 1799 against the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Declaration of Independence, and President George Washington's farewell address; and