Emily Kadens

Emily Kadens is the Edna B. and Ednyfed H. Williams Memorial Professor of Law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, affiliated with the Department of History at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences. She holds a PhD in Medieval History from Princeton University (2001) and a JD from the University of Chicago (2004). Her research focuses on medieval and early modern commercial law, equity court archives, and the intersection of law and commerce in early modern England and Europe. She is also pioneering AI-driven transcription of 16th- and 17th-century legal documents to digitize historical records.

Her expertise includes legal and criminal history, particularly the medieval law merchant, bankruptcy history, and the role of custom in legal frameworks. She has held prestigious fellowships, including the Kluge Fellowship and a grant from the Richard & Diane Cummins Foundation. Notable awards include the Sutherland Prize and multiple recognitions for teaching excellence.

Current projects involve analyzing equity court files to study commercial fraud and collaborating with European neural net platforms to develop AI transcription tools for historical manuscripts. Kadens aims to create a searchable online repository of transcribed legal archives, enhancing accessibility to early modern legal records.