Law leather was the name for a specific kind and grade of sheepskin leather used for bookbinding. As its name indicates, it was used for binding statute books and other official documents. Many state statutes specified "law leather" bindings. An 1871 Ohio state resolution, for example, provided that
In the 1880s, the Philadelphia publisher Blakiston offered many of its medical text in a choice of "cloth", "medical sheep", and "law leather" bindings.[2]