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  3. Cambridge Studies in English Legal History

Cambridge Studies in English Legal History began publication in 1921, and now includes some fifty volumes. It has always been under the general editorship of a member of the cambridge Law Faculty - since 1987 Professor J. H. Baker - and has concentrated on lawyers' aspects of legal history, both doctrinal and institutional. Over the last thirty years the series has included studies of the Courts of Exchequer, Requests, and Delegates, the Privy Council, and County Courts, and the Assizes; the earliest royal judges; attorneys and solicitors in the early modern period; law reform under the Commonwealth and the Victorian era; the effect of the Reformation on English ecclesiastical law; and biographical studies of Lord Ellesmere, Lord Stowell, Lord Eldon and Dr Lushington. The works on substantive legal history include two important contributions to our understanding of medieval land law, one concerning the feudal framework of the common law and the other the origin and early practice of entails; essays on marriage settlements, negotiable instruments, evidence, and copyright; and a study of the legal theory of medieval common lawyers. The earlier volumes, which include some edited texts, have attained classic status and have been reprinted in facsimile by Wm M. Gaunt & Sons, Inc., of Florida.

  • General Editors: J. H. Baker, St Catharine's College, Cambridge

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36 results in Cambridge Studies in English Legal History

Page 2 of 2

Legal Foundations of Tribunals in Nineteenth Century England
  • Chantal Stebbings
  • Published online:
    02 December 2009
    Print publication:
    18 January 2007
  • Nineteenth-century governments faced considerable challenges from the rapid, novel and profound changes in social and economic conditions resulting from the industrial revolution. In the context of an increasingly sophisticated and complex government, from the 1830s the specialist and largely lay statutory tribunal was conceived and adopted as the principal method of both implementing the new regulatory legislation and resolving disputes. The tribunal's legal nature and procedures, and its place in the machinery of justice, were debated and refined throughout the Victorian period. In examining this process, this 2007 book explains the interaction between legal constraints, social and economic demand and political expediency that gave rise to this form of dispute resolution. It reveals the imagination and creativity of the legislators who drew on diverse legal institutions and values to create the new tribunals, and shows how the modern difficulties of legal classification were largely the result of the institution's nineteenth-century development.

Roman Canon Law in Reformation England
  • R. H. Helmholz
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    03 May 1990
  • In this book one of the world's foremost legal historians draws upon the evidence of the canon law, court records and the English common-law system to demonstrate the extent to which, contrary to received wisdom, Roman canon law survived in England after the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation. R. H. Helmholz provides an extensive examination of the manuscript records of the ecclesiastical courts and professional literature of the English civilians. Rebutting the views of Maitland and others, he shows how English looked to the Continent for guidance and authority in administering the system of justice they had inherited from the Middle Ages. Intellectual links between England and the Continent are shown to have survived the Reformation and the abolition of papal jurisdiction. The extent to which papal material was still used in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will interest all readers and surprise many.

Sir William Scott, Lord Stowell
  • Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 1798–1828
  • Henry J. Bourguignon
  • Published online:
    29 October 2009
    Print publication:
    12 November 1987
  • Sir William Scott's thirty years as judge of the High Court of Admiralty provide the basis of his reputation as the greatest of civilian (as opposed to common) lawyers. In this major study, the first for over seventy years, Professor Bourguignon analyzes his work as judge of the admiralty court in the light of the little-known, unpublished body of law which had been developed prior to his appointment. His term of office coincided with the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and thus Scott had to bear and determine hundreds of cases involving the capture of vessels in time of war. These prize cases provided Scott with the opportunity to state and develop many aspects of the international law of war, especially the law of neutral and belligerent rights at sea. He also influenced the development of admiralty law in the cases, which he heard of private disputes concerning maritime commerce.

William Sheppard, Cromwell's Law Reformer
  • Nancy L. Matthews
  • Published online:
    28 October 2009
    Print publication:
    10 January 1985
  • This study presents a full account of Sheppard's employment under Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate as well as an examination of his family background and education, his religious commitment to John Owen's party of Independents and his legal philosophy. An appraisal of all Sheppard's legal works, including those written during the Civil War and the Restoration period, illustrates the overlapping concerns with law reform, religion and politics in his generation. Sheppard had impressively consistent goals for the reform of English law and his prescient proposals anticipate the reforms ultimately adopted in the nineteenth century, culminating in the Judicature Acts of 1875–8. Dr Matthews examines the relative importance of Sheppard's books to his generation and to legal literature in general. The study provides a full bibliography of Sheppard's legal and religious works and an appendix of the sources Sheppard used in the composition of his books on the law.

Pettyfoggers and Vipers of the Commonwealth
  • The 'Lower Branch' of the Legal Profession in Early Modern England
  • C. W. Brooks
  • Published online:
    28 October 2009
    Print publication:
    24 April 1986
  • Historians have long recognized that members of the lower branch of the legal profession, the ancestors of the modern solicitors, played an important part in early modern English society, but difficulties in establishing their identities and recovering their career patterns have hitherto left them virtually unstudied. This work charts the massive sixteenth-century increase in central court litigation and offers an explanation of it largely in terms of social change and the decline of local jurisdictions. At the same time, it argues that the period witnessed a major turning point in the relationship between the legal profession and English society. The number of practitioners in the lower branch who were associated with the legal institutions of London grew to such an extent that by 1640 the ratio of lawyers to population was not much different from that in the early twentieth century. Although this tremendous growth in the amount of legal business and the number of legal practitioners created some serious administrative problems, the commonly held view that the lower branch in this period was largely untrained, dishonest, and uncontrolled is no more than a myth.

The Law of Treason in England in the Later Middle Ages
  • J. G. Bellamy
  • Published online:
    14 October 2009
    Print publication:
    02 September 1970
  • Professor Bellamy places the theory of treason in its political setting and analyses the part it played in the development of legal and political thought in this period. He pays particular attention to the Statute of Treason of 1352, an act with a notable effect on later constitutional history and which, in the opinion of Edward Coke, had a legal importance second only to that of Magna Carta. He traces the English law of treason to Roman and Germanic origins, and discusses the development of royal attitudes towards rebellion, the judicial procedures used to try and condemn suspected traitors, and the interaction of the law of treason and constitutional ideas.

Sir Henry Maine
  • A Study in Victorian Jurisprudence
  • Raymond Cocks
  • Published online:
    29 September 2009
    Print publication:
    24 November 1988
  • Sir Henry Maine died in 1888 and since then his ideas have been used by lawyers, historians, sociologists and many others. This is the first book to concentrate upon what he said about the law itself, and, as such, it explores the pioneering work Maine did in explaining law not by reference to abstract analysis but by placing it firmly in its social and historical context. Instead of concentrating on concepts such as sovereignty he looked at the realities of law as it was practised by professionals and experienced by laymen. The result was a controversial achievement stressing the reforming duties of jurists and citizens at times of social change. This is neither a conventional biography nor an abstract analysis of Maine's thought, but a demonstration of the contemporary context and significance of his views.

The Early History of the Law of Bills and Notes
  • A Study of the Origins of Anglo-American Commercial Law
  • James Steven Rogers
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    09 March 1995
  • This study traces the history of the law of bills and notes in England from medieval times to the period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when bills played a central role in the domestic and international financial system. It challenges the traditional theory that English commercial law developed by incorporation of the concept of negotiability and other rules from an ancient body of customary law known as the law merchant. Rogers shows that the law of bills was developed within the common law system itself, in response to changing economic and business practices. This account draws on economic and business history to explain how bills were actually used and to examine the relationship between the law of bills and economic and social controversies.

Marriage Litigation in Medieval England
  • R. H. Helmholz
  • Published online:
    18 September 2009
    Print publication:
    06 March 1975
  • This book tells one part of the long history of the institution of marriage. Questions concerning the formation and annulment of marriage came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the church courts during the Middle Ages. Drawing on unpublished records of these courts, Professor Helmholz describes the practical side of matrimonial jurisdiction and relates it to his outline of the formal law of marriage. He investigates the nature of the cases heard, the procedure used, the people involved and changes over the period covered, all of which add to what is known about marriage and legal practice in medieval England. The concluding assessment of canonical jurisdiction over marriage suggests that the application of the law was more successful than is usually thought.

A History of the County Court, 1846–1971
  • Patrick Polden
  • Published online:
    06 September 2009
    Print publication:
    04 November 1999
  • This 1999 book was the first full-length account of the county court, which in contemporary English life has become the main forum for most civil disputes. It began as the 'poor man's court', largely concerned with the pursuit of working-class debtors; but, as this book shows, it has expanded far beyond its origins as an agency `for the more easy recovery of small debts' and now includes in its jurisdiction a diverse range of matters, including housing, accidents and consumer goods. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author traces the history of the county court from its creation in 1846 through to the reconstruction of the court system in 1971. He describes its organisation and officers, from judges to bailiffs, and discusses the roles of judges, practising lawyers and lay persons. The text is an intriguing engagement with themes including access to justice.

John Scott, Lord Eldon, 1751–1838
  • The Duty of Loyalty
  • Rose Melikan
  • Published online:
    07 August 2009
    Print publication:
    22 July 1999
  • John Scott, Lord Eldon (1751–1838) was a dominant figure in Georgian public life, and ranks among the most important Lord Chancellors in the long history of that office. This biography - the first for one hundred and fifty years - also surveys Eldon's earlier career as an MP and Law Officer. As a lawyer entering Parliament, he encountered both prejudices against 'learned gentlemen' and opportunities for advancement. Once in office he swiftly made his presence felt, drafting the Regency bill of 1788, and conducting the government's legal campaign against Republicanism. Retiring at last in 1827, Eldon spent his final years opposing political reform. Labelled by many as a relic of 'Old Toryism', Eldon's views of government, politics, and the constitution represent an important strand in Georgian political thinking, and his career illuminates the work of the major legal offices of British government.

The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval England
  • 1176–1502
  • Joseph Biancalana
  • Published online:
    28 July 2009
    Print publication:
    27 September 2001
  • Fee tails were a basic building block for family landholding from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The classic entail was an interest in land which was inalienable and could only pass at death by inheritance to the lineal heirs of the original grantee. Biancalana's study considers the origins, development and use of the entail in later medieval England, and the origins and early use of a reliable legal mechanism for the destruction of individual entails, the common recovery. He untangles the complex history surrounding medieval landholding in this detailed study of the fee tail, the product of extensive research in original sources. This book includes an extensive index of over three hundred common recoveries with discussions of their transactional contexts. A major work which will interest lawyers and historians.

Literary Copyright Reform in Early Victorian England
  • The Framing of the 1842 Copyright Act
  • Catherine Seville
  • Published online:
    18 July 2009
    Print publication:
    20 September 1999
  • Talfourd's first Copyright Bill was presented in 1837, and the public and Parliamentary controversy it provoked is reflected in contemporary pamphlets, correspondence, and hundreds of petitions presented to Parliament, as well as in the changing aims of the bill itself. In addition to the expected debate as to the nature of literary property and the economic effects on the publishing trade, discussion of copyright law raised broader questions; the relative values of literature and science, the importance of public education, the dangers of monopolies, and the nature of public interest. In a period of social, political and technological upheaval, these were incendiary matters. Talfourd audaciously demanded not only a considerable extension of copyright term, but also international protection. This book explores and sets in context the making of the Copyright Act 1842, using it to illuminate enduring issues and difficulties in the legal concept of intellectual property.

Aliens in Medieval Law
  • The Origins of Modern Citizenship
  • Keechang Kim
  • Published online:
    08 July 2009
    Print publication:
    07 December 2000
  • This reinterpretation of the legal status of foreigners in medieval England boldly rejects the canonical view which has for centuries dominated the imagination of historians and laymen alike. Keechang Kim proposes an understanding of the genesis of the modern legal regime and the important distinction between citizens and non-citizens. Making full use of medieval and early modern sources, Kim offers a compelling argument that the late medieval changes in legal treatment of foreigners are vital to an understanding of the shift of focus from status to the State, and that the historical foundation of the modern state system should be sought in this shift of outlook. The book contains a re-evaluation of the legal aspects of feudalism, examining, in particular, how the feudal legal arguments were transformed by the political theology of the Middle Ages to become the basis of the modern legal outlook.

The Private Trustee in Victorian England
  • Chantal Stebbings
  • Published online:
    05 July 2009
    Print publication:
    20 December 2001
  • The trust was a popular device among the Victorian middle classes to preserve their private property for the benefit of their families. At the centre of this legal institution was the trustee, whose duty it was to manage the property as the original owner wished. In their task of managing the property, Victorian trustees found themselves in a society which was changing rapidly and extensively, a new commercial and dynamic society which had a profound effect on their ability to carry out their duties. This book explores the legal response to the challenges faced by trustees, and does so through the varied relationships which trustees necessarily experienced in the course of their administration. A consideration of the legal dimension to trusteeship, this book sets the trustee in his legal, social and economic context. It will be of interest to legal historians, as well as to historians of nineteenth-century Britain.

The Royal Prerogative and the Learning of the Inns of Court
  • Margaret McGlynn
  • Published online:
    04 July 2009
    Print publication:
    04 September 2003
  • Between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth century Prerogativa Regis, a central text of fiscal feudalism, was introduced into the curriculum of the Inns of Court, developed, and then abandoned. This book argues that while lawyers often turned their attention to the text when political and financial issues brought it to the fore, they sought to maintain an intellectual consistency and coherence in the law. Discussions of both substance and procedure demonstrate how readers reflected the concerns of their time in the topics they chose to consider and how they drew on the learning of both their predecessors and their peers at the Inns. The first study based primarily on readings, this book threw light on legal education, early Tudor financial and administrative procedure, and the relationship between the ways that law was made, taught and used.

Page 2 of 2