English Legal History and its Sources
Essays in Honour of Sir John Baker
- Editors:
- David Ibbetson, University of Cambridge
- Neil Jones, University of Cambridge
- Nigel Ramsay, University College London
- Publication planned for: October 2024
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108716345
Paperback
Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook
Looking for an inspection copy?
This title is not currently available for inspection. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an inspection copy. To register your interest please contact [email protected] providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
This volume honours the work and writings of Professor Sir John Baker over the past fifty years, presenting a collection of essays by leading scholars on topics relating to the sources of English legal history, the study of which Sir John has so much advanced. The essays range from the twelfth century to the nineteenth, considering courts (central and local), the professions (both common law and civilian), legal doctrine, learning, practice, and language, and the cataloguing of legal manuscripts. The sources addressed include court records, reports of litigation (in print and in manuscript), abridgements, fee books and accounts, conveyances and legal images. The volume advances understanding of the history of the common law and its sources, and by bringing together essays on a range of topics, approaches and periods, underlines the richness of material available for the study of the history of English law and indicates avenues for future research.
Read more- A Festschrift in honour of Professor Sir John Baker, a world-renowned legal historian of exceptional stature, by a group of those associated with Sir John's work and career, distinguished legal historians in their own right
- Designed to address, in broad terms, the theme of sources of English legal history which will be valuable as a scholarly resource in that respect
- A high proportion of the chapters in the book contain new work on sources not previously examined, or not previously examined for the purposes addressed in the chapters
Reviews & endorsements
'The results speak for themselves: the papers collected here, ranging from the 12th to the 19th century, draw upon extensive new archival work, and will be of interest to a readership well beyond the ranks of the specialist legal historians … The inherent interest of the essays gathered here aside, scholars everywhere will be grateful to those among the contributors who have generously made sets of data available to others as appendices to their essays.' Hannes Kleineke, Parliamentary History
Customer reviews
17th Oct 2024 by UName-456522
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME: ORIGINAL SOURCES REVEAL STARTLING INSIGHTS INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister” Whether barristers or solicitors, lawyers in any category who might possibly regard legal history as perhaps not terribly relevant to their daily concerns, should only read this book, a recent title from the Cambridge University Press. You never know they might find it fascinating, as these reviewers definitely do. Compiled in tribute to Sir John Baker, acknowledged as the best-known legal historian of all, the book reveals much about the development of the English common law, from the twelfth century to the nineteenth — including its everyday realities. Under the able editorship of David Ibbotson, Neil Jones and Nigel Ramsay, the contributors, all distinguished scholars in this field, have gleaned their materials and drawn their conclusions from original sources, as all good historians should do. Consisting of documentation written and produced as permanent records at the time and on the spot — these sources include reports of litigation (reprinted and in manuscript)… court records… abridgements… records of fees and accounts… legal images… conveyances… and more — and this is by no means an exhaustive list. If fees are your thing (and you are not alone in this) check out the fee records of, for example, William Stainford, a practitioner of the Tudor period during the reign of Henry VIII who meticulously recorded his fees (‘gaynes’) at the Bar from 1539-40 to 1553-54. ‘My Gaynes of the law,’ he calls them, ‘syns I began to practise, which was in the beginning of Lent, Anno XXX of our most drad sourerain, Lorde Henri.’ It may be understating the case to say that this book really takes you back in time. Over its twenty chapters by as many contributors, the book is divided into four parts namely ‘Law Reports and Reporting… Courts and Records of Litigation… Images of the Law… and Legal Practice and Legal Learning. The section on ‘images’ (including Magna Carta) discusses the visual symbolism and iconography of the law, which far from being ‘irrelevant and immaterial’ as some might claim, is shown quite convincingly to ‘complement and supplement the information provided by the records.’ It’s argued that such visual portrayals of the courts and the legal profession across a range of media - including insignia, prints, engravings and cartoons - convey a particular resonance in legal history and can be explored from interdisciplinary points of view. Baker himself apparently assembled quite a collection of such images! There is much, much more to admire and learn from this volume which appropriately ends with an essay on ‘The Glorious Uncertainty of the Law’ 1810-1830.’ Certainly, the book offers readers one startling insight after another into the evolution of the common law. Also note the amazing number of references for further research. The date of publication of this hardback edition is cited as at 2nd May 2019.
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Publication planned for: October 2024
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781108716345
- length: 421 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 152 x 22 mm
- weight: 0.628kg
- contains: 2 b/w illus. 6 tables
- availability: Not yet published - available from October 2024
Table of Contents
1. Year book men David J. Seipp
2. Errores in camera Scaccarii David Ibbetson
3. Law reporting in the seventeenth century W. H. Bryson
4. The law of contracts as reported in The Times, 1785–1820 James Oldham
5. Reading terminology in the sources for the early common law: seisin, simple and not so simple John Hudson
6. 'A photograph of English life'?: the trustworthiness of the thirteenth-century crown pleas rolls Henry Summerson
7. Law, lawyers and legal records: litigating and practising law in late medieval England Jonathan Rose
8. The fees they earned: the incomes of William Staunford and other Tudor lawyers Nigel Ramsay
9. The fifteenth-century accounts of the undersheriffs of Middlesex: an unlikely source for legal history Susanne Brand
10. Local courts in Eastern Sussex, 1263–1835 Christopher Whittick
11. Visualising legal history: the courts and legal profession in image Anthony Musson
12. The engraved facsimile by John Pine (1733) of the 'Canterbury' Magna Carta (1215) Simon Keynes
13. The abbess, the empress and the 'Constitutions of Clarendon' Elisabeth van Houts
14. The Tractatus de antiquo dominico corone ascribed to Anger of Ripon Paul Brand
15. Another way of doing manuscript catalogues? Charles Donahue, Jr
16. Common opinion in the fourteenth century: before the common learning, before the Inns of Court Ian Williams
17. Henry Sherfield's reading on wills (1624) and trusts in the form of a use upon a use N. G. Jones
18. Civilians in the common law courts, 1500–1700 R. H. Helmholz
19. The widow's apparel: paraphernalia and the courts Janet S. Loengard
20. 'The glorious uncertainty of the law': life at the Bar, 1810–1830 Michael Lobban.
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email [email protected]
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×