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The History of English Law, Volume 1: Before the Time of Edward I

The History of English Law, Volume 1: Before the Time of Edward IAuthors: Sir Frederick Pollock, Frederic William Maitland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book

List Price: $90.00
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Seller: ann_arbor_books
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2,126,579

Media: Paperback
Edition: Second
Pages: 688
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.7

ISBN: 0521095158
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.0942
EAN: 9780521095150
ASIN: 0521095158

Publication Date: October 1, 1968
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Also Available In:

  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I.
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (Volume 1)
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. (V.2 ) (1899 )
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Hardcover - The history of English law before the time of Edward I,
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. (Volume 2)
  • Paperback - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (V.2 ) (1895 )
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I.
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I.
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (V.1 ) (1895 )
  • Hardcover - HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW BEFORE THE TIME OF EDWARD I, 2 VOL CL SET, THE
  • Paperback - HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW BEFORE THE TIME OF EDWARD I, 2 VOL PB SET, THE
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Hardcover - The History of English Law (v. 1)
  • Hardcover - The history of English law before the time of Edward I,
  • Hardcover - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I.,
  • Hardcover - The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I - Volumes I and II - (v. 2)
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Paperback - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Paperback - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Paperback - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. (V.1 ) (1911 )
  • Paperback - The History of English Law: Volume 2: Before the Time of Edward I
  • Hardcover - The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I.,
  • Hardcover - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
  • Unknown Binding - The history of English law before the time of Edward I
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Although this book was envisaged as a joint venture and bears the name of both Pollock and Maitland, it is substantially the work of Maitland. It was recognised at once as a masterpiece and has since been accepted as one of the great histories in the English language. In Maitland's lifetime Acton pronounced him the ablest historian in England. Plucknett said that 'everything he wrote exercises a deep fascination and a personal attraction'. To Sir Maurice Powicke he was 'one of the immortals'. Lord Annan, in the preface to his Leslie Stephen, called him 'perhaps the greatest of all professional historians'. To read The History of English Law, even many years after Maitland's death, is to feel at once the touch of a master. That touch could only be weakened by editing, so the present issue is a reprint of the second edition but with an introductory essay and a select bibliography by S. F. C. Milsom, Professor of Legal History in the University of London.

Book Description
Although this book was envisaged as a joint venture and bears the name of both Pollock and Maitland, it is substantially the work of Maitland. It was recognised at once as a masterpiece and has since been accepted as one of the great histories in the English language.

Customer Reviews:
5 out of 5 stars Groundbreaking and fascinating historical scholarship   March 29, 2001
S. Gustafson (New Albany, IN USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

The law of England underwent major changes under the energetic leadership of the Plantagenet kings. This scholarly work traces and outlines this most fascinating and actually entertaining period in legal history.

Before the acts chronicled here, the business of law enforcement in all its various forms, both civil and criminal, was a rather haphazard and local affair. Magical ordeals, often administered by the clergy, and probably fixed by them to reach what they thought the proper outcome, were a major method of trial. Noblemen could fend off charges by their inferiors by swearing they didn't do it, and finding enough people to swear that they believed 'em. Disputes between nobles were as often as not settled by the sword, in either actual battle or ritual combat.

The Plantagenet kings made this imperfect system obsolete, not by legislating it out of existence, but by offering a superior product. They introduced the grand and petit jury, whose ultimate origins are obscure, but which may trace back to the Scandinavian ancestors of the Normans. New forms of litigation were set up beside the old ones, only these led to the royally instituted jury rather than the old forms of trial by oaths, magic, or battle.

And, having this parallel system in place, attorneys were careful to frame their pleadings so as to bring their litigation within the ambit of the new trials, rather than the old ones. These basic legal reforms, helped along by certain legal fictions made necessary to achieve the desired result, became the foundation of a legal system more suited to a national state with a central royal government, rather than the patchwork jurisdictions of feudalism.

This fascinating story is told in all its detail in these old but still intriguing books.

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