Paul Brand
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines twentieth-century British scholarship on medieval English legal history. Legal history has long been a marginal subject within British academic life, falling somewhat clumsily ...
More
This chapter examines twentieth-century British scholarship on medieval English legal history. Legal history has long been a marginal subject within British academic life, falling somewhat clumsily between the two stools of law and history, although it is an essential part of both subjects. There were very few English medieval legal historians at work during the twentieth century and this is unlikely to change for the better in the future.Less
This chapter examines twentieth-century British scholarship on medieval English legal history. Legal history has long been a marginal subject within British academic life, falling somewhat clumsily between the two stools of law and history, although it is an essential part of both subjects. There were very few English medieval legal historians at work during the twentieth century and this is unlikely to change for the better in the future.
John B Nann and Morris L Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780300118537
- eISBN:
- 9780300235685
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300118537.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
The study of legal history has a broad application that extends well beyond the interests of legal historians. An attorney arguing a case today may need to cite cases that are decades or even ...
More
The study of legal history has a broad application that extends well beyond the interests of legal historians. An attorney arguing a case today may need to cite cases that are decades or even centuries old, and historians studying political or cultural history often encounter legal issues that affect their main subjects. Both groups need to understand the laws and legal practices of past eras. Law plays an important part in the political and social history of the United States. As such, researchers interested in almost every aspect of American life will have occasion to use legal materials. The book provides an overview of legal history research, describing the U.S. legal system and legal authority. It is essential reference is intended for the many nonspecialists who need to enter this arcane and often tricky area of research.Less
The study of legal history has a broad application that extends well beyond the interests of legal historians. An attorney arguing a case today may need to cite cases that are decades or even centuries old, and historians studying political or cultural history often encounter legal issues that affect their main subjects. Both groups need to understand the laws and legal practices of past eras. Law plays an important part in the political and social history of the United States. As such, researchers interested in almost every aspect of American life will have occasion to use legal materials. The book provides an overview of legal history research, describing the U.S. legal system and legal authority. It is essential reference is intended for the many nonspecialists who need to enter this arcane and often tricky area of research.
A. W. Brian Simpson
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198262992
- eISBN:
- 9780191682438
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198262992.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This book offers a collection of chapters by arguably the most popular legal historian writing today. Most of the chapters have not been previously published, and those which have appeared previously ...
More
This book offers a collection of chapters by arguably the most popular legal historian writing today. Most of the chapters have not been previously published, and those which have appeared previously have been re-written to make the collection read more coherently. The collection is centred upon the theme of the leading case — a case where the judgment has established a long-lasting or far reaching precedent in common law, and the author has selected a number of these cases in order to illustrate how the precedents established by the cases have little or nothing to do with the trials themselves.Less
This book offers a collection of chapters by arguably the most popular legal historian writing today. Most of the chapters have not been previously published, and those which have appeared previously have been re-written to make the collection read more coherently. The collection is centred upon the theme of the leading case — a case where the judgment has established a long-lasting or far reaching precedent in common law, and the author has selected a number of these cases in order to illustrate how the precedents established by the cases have little or nothing to do with the trials themselves.
J. H. BAKER
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199245185
- eISBN:
- 9780191705175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245185.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter focuses on the two bodies of law — case-law and statute law. It proposes the complexities posed to legal historians by the co-existence of these two bodies of law, operating on different ...
More
This chapter focuses on the two bodies of law — case-law and statute law. It proposes the complexities posed to legal historians by the co-existence of these two bodies of law, operating on different planes and sometimes in discord, and yet both within the understanding and contemplation of lawyers. It also makes a clear differentiation the two laws by reconstructing events during the medieval and early-modern periods. Moreover, it evaluates several internal conflicts of law, extra-legal practices, and non-contentious forms of litigation.Less
This chapter focuses on the two bodies of law — case-law and statute law. It proposes the complexities posed to legal historians by the co-existence of these two bodies of law, operating on different planes and sometimes in discord, and yet both within the understanding and contemplation of lawyers. It also makes a clear differentiation the two laws by reconstructing events during the medieval and early-modern periods. Moreover, it evaluates several internal conflicts of law, extra-legal practices, and non-contentious forms of litigation.
John Baker
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199245185
- eISBN:
- 9780191705175
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245185.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This book aims to contribute to the understanding of the character of the common law tradition. The common law is almost universally regarded as a system of case-law, increasingly supplemented by ...
More
This book aims to contribute to the understanding of the character of the common law tradition. The common law is almost universally regarded as a system of case-law, increasingly supplemented by legislation, but this is only partly true. There is an extensive body of lawyers' law, which has a real existence outside the formal sources, but is seldom acknowledged or discussed either by theorists or legal historians. This will still be so even when every judicial decision is electronically accessible. In the heyday of the inns of court, this second body of law was partly expressed in ‘common learning’, a corpus of legal doctrine handed on largely by oral tradition and a system of education informing the mind of every common lawyer. That common learning emanated from a law school in which the judges actively participated, and in which the lecturers of one generation provided the judiciary of the next. Some of it was written down, though the texts were until recently forgotten, and its importance was overlooked by historians as a result of changes in the common-law system during the early-modern period. Other forms of informal law may be seen at work in other times and contexts. Although judicial decisions will always remain prime sources of legal history, as well as of law, the other body of legal thought and practice is equally ‘law’ in that it influences lawyers and has real consequences. Neither the history nor the present working of the common law can be understood without acknowledging its importance.Less
This book aims to contribute to the understanding of the character of the common law tradition. The common law is almost universally regarded as a system of case-law, increasingly supplemented by legislation, but this is only partly true. There is an extensive body of lawyers' law, which has a real existence outside the formal sources, but is seldom acknowledged or discussed either by theorists or legal historians. This will still be so even when every judicial decision is electronically accessible. In the heyday of the inns of court, this second body of law was partly expressed in ‘common learning’, a corpus of legal doctrine handed on largely by oral tradition and a system of education informing the mind of every common lawyer. That common learning emanated from a law school in which the judges actively participated, and in which the lecturers of one generation provided the judiciary of the next. Some of it was written down, though the texts were until recently forgotten, and its importance was overlooked by historians as a result of changes in the common-law system during the early-modern period. Other forms of informal law may be seen at work in other times and contexts. Although judicial decisions will always remain prime sources of legal history, as well as of law, the other body of legal thought and practice is equally ‘law’ in that it influences lawyers and has real consequences. Neither the history nor the present working of the common law can be understood without acknowledging its importance.
David Ibbetson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199264148
- eISBN:
- 9780191698910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264148.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter addresses the question of what legal history is a history of. It begins by drawing the more or less conventional division between external legal history and internal legal history. It ...
More
This chapter addresses the question of what legal history is a history of. It begins by drawing the more or less conventional division between external legal history and internal legal history. It then focuses on internal legal history, which deals with law on its own terms. Its sources are predominantly those drawn up by the legal process – in England, that is, records of courts, law reports, and legal treatises – and its practitioners are as often as not trained lawyers, or at least scholars whose discipline is law. On the face of internal legal history there cannot be any doubt that it is the history of law, but the real problem is to decide what we mean by law.Less
This chapter addresses the question of what legal history is a history of. It begins by drawing the more or less conventional division between external legal history and internal legal history. It then focuses on internal legal history, which deals with law on its own terms. Its sources are predominantly those drawn up by the legal process – in England, that is, records of courts, law reports, and legal treatises – and its practitioners are as often as not trained lawyers, or at least scholars whose discipline is law. On the face of internal legal history there cannot be any doubt that it is the history of law, but the real problem is to decide what we mean by law.
Daniel J. Hulsebosch and R. B. Bernstein (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814725269
- eISBN:
- 9780814708286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814725269.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This book presents chapters that offer an illuminating cross-section of the questions, sources, and narratives used by historians working in the field of American legal history today. Its goal is to ...
More
This book presents chapters that offer an illuminating cross-section of the questions, sources, and narratives used by historians working in the field of American legal history today. Its goal is to honor William E. Bill Nelson's convictions about the historical enterprise, above all the central importance of identifying a genuine problem, undertaking original research, and telling a compelling story. The volume's contributors do not subscribe to a single programmatic theme or method. Instead, they ask different questions, use an array of sources, and tell their stories in individual ways. The remainder of the chapter briefly discusses Nelson's contributions to scholarship on American legal and constitutional history, followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.Less
This book presents chapters that offer an illuminating cross-section of the questions, sources, and narratives used by historians working in the field of American legal history today. Its goal is to honor William E. Bill Nelson's convictions about the historical enterprise, above all the central importance of identifying a genuine problem, undertaking original research, and telling a compelling story. The volume's contributors do not subscribe to a single programmatic theme or method. Instead, they ask different questions, use an array of sources, and tell their stories in individual ways. The remainder of the chapter briefly discusses Nelson's contributions to scholarship on American legal and constitutional history, followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.
Anna Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300171112
- eISBN:
- 9780300199192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300171112.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter asks: irrespective of the frequency of elected branch sanctions, do federal judges defer to elected branch preferences in their decisions? This chapter, and the ones that follow, narrow ...
More
This chapter asks: irrespective of the frequency of elected branch sanctions, do federal judges defer to elected branch preferences in their decisions? This chapter, and the ones that follow, narrow the focus from the federal courts in general to the Supreme Court in particular. In recent years, legal historians have engaged in a lively debate over whether the justices of the Supreme Court defer to elected branch preferences in their decisions. This chapter looks at how quantitative analysts have approached the empirical question of estimating the Court's independence (or lack thereof) from elected branch preferences.Less
This chapter asks: irrespective of the frequency of elected branch sanctions, do federal judges defer to elected branch preferences in their decisions? This chapter, and the ones that follow, narrow the focus from the federal courts in general to the Supreme Court in particular. In recent years, legal historians have engaged in a lively debate over whether the justices of the Supreme Court defer to elected branch preferences in their decisions. This chapter looks at how quantitative analysts have approached the empirical question of estimating the Court's independence (or lack thereof) from elected branch preferences.