The presentation of the History of Law wraps around the building in a counterclockwise procession. It is divided into four distinct phases, which represent the establishment of Law in the Ancient World, Three Important Legal Documents, English and American Subjects, and higher up on the tower, a parade of the Lawgivers who carried an upheld the law from ancient to modern times.

The panels representing the Three Important Legal Documents, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the Drafting of the United States Constitution are referred to as pierced panels, as the carving penetrates the depth of each panel.

The Ancient world traces the development of Hebrew Law, and progresses down through the growth of Greek and Roman Law. English and American Subjects cover the medieval, renaissance and colonial law, up to the American Revolution and strongly focus on the birth of civil rights.

Anglo-Saxon law was first codified in the Sixth Century by Ethelbert after the fall of Rome, when Britain fell to the Angles, Saxons and Jutes and other Germanic tribes that established small kingdoms. Ethelbert's code limited tribal warfare and established the first English Law.

John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, is portrayed for his oration of the Areopagitica: the play that encouraged ancient Greeks to strive for a purer democracy. Areopagitica is also held up as a model for freedom of the press, where the public is allowed to distinguish between choosing truth over error. Milton had lived through the English Civil War of the mid-16th Century, and he is depicted reading the Areopagitica to Oliver Cromwell and Parliament in his opposition to censorship.