The series contains correspondence on the topic of criminal jurisprudence, including criminal law, prison reform, prison conditions, and the abolition of capital punishment. Civil and (perhaps) commercial law are also discussed, but to a lesser extent. The primary issue is the discussion, compilation, and dissemination of Livingston's System of Penal Law, completed in 1825. Many of the letters are in response to the circulars which Livingston distributed, and to the publication of his reports and codes.

Correspondents include John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Alexander Dallas Bache, Franklin Bache, Francois Barbe-Marbois, Jeremy Bentham, George M. Bibb, Simon Bolivar, John Bowring, Henry Adams Bullard, Mathew Carey, Ezekiel F. Chambers, Charles X of France, Charles XIV, John of Norway and Sweden, John Clark, Henry Clay, DeWitt Clinton, Cadwallader D. Colden, Benjamin Constant, Thomas Cooper, Nathan Dane, Henry Dearborn, Pierre Derbigny, Peter S. Du Ponceau, Gabriel Duvall, Thomas Eddy, Thomas Addis Emmett, Edward Everett, Ferdinand VII of Spain, Samuel A Foote, Joseph Gales, Charles Gayarre, Henry Dilworth Gilpin, James Gould, Charles G. Haines, Robert Goodloe Harper, John Haviland, Jesse Lynch Holman, David Hosack, Victor Hugo, Charles Jared Ingersoll, John Jay, Peter A. Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Richard M. Johnson, James Kent, Morgan Lewis, Louis Philippe of France, Charles Lucas, Elam Lynds, James Madison, John Marshall, Hugh Maxwell, James Mease, Henry Middleton, Francois-Auguste Mignet, C.J.A. Mittermaier, Louis Moreau-Lislet, John Neal, Count Nesselrode, Nicholas I of Russia, Mordecai M. Noah, David B. Ogden, George Ord, Henry Palmerston, Pedro I of Brazil, Robert Peel, Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Gustave de Pontdecoulant, William Pitt Preble, Josiah Quincy, William Rawle, Thomas Bolling Robertson, Andre Bienvenu Roman, William Roscoe, Richard Rush, Jose de San Martin, Walter Scott, Jeremiah Smith, Mikhail Speransky, Andrew Stevenson, Silas M. Stilwell, William L. Stone, Joseph Story, A.H. Taillandier, Francis Thomas, Smith Thompson, Jessy Quinn Thornton, George Ticknor, Thomas C. Upham, Martin Van Buren, Roberts Vaux, Abel-Francois Villemain, Robert Walsh, Bushrod Washington, Daniel Webster, the Duke of Wellington, Thomas I. Wharton, Richard Henry Wilde, William I of the Netherlands, William IV of Great Britain, John Williams, Isaac H. Williamson, Oliver Wolcott, Levi Woodbury, and others. Discussion of criminal jurisprudence is also a common topic on the Correspondence: General series (A.1). See also letters in that series of James J. Barclay, Henry Clay, Peter De Ponceau, Francis Lieber, J. Lonsdale, Eli K. Price, William Sampson, Theodore Sedgwick, William Smith, H.S. Thibodaux, George Ticknor, G. Tomlinson, Charles R. Vaughan, M.L. Viduare, and D.B. Warden, and many others.

Includes partial drafts of the penal codes and their introductory reports, legislative acts relating to prisons and penal law, the civil code, laws relating to contracts and forgery, capital punishment, and miscellaneous writings and notes.

(Includes partial drafts of the Code and their Introductory Reports, legislative acts relating to prisons and penal law, the civil code, laws relating to contracts and forgery, capital punishment, and miscellaneous writings and notes.)

Contains extracts, articles, other miscellaneous manuscripts items.

Contains thirty-five books, pamphlets, and manuscript works by various authors, collected by Edward Livingston and other family members.

Includes several issues of Le Globe.