British Legal History – Professor Simpson
CIVIL LAW– 3
1. Introduction- 3
a. (1) Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law- 3
2. The Roman or Civil Law Tradition- 4
a. (2) Gaius’ Institutes- 4
b. (3) Justinian’s Digests- 4
c. (4) J.H. Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition- 5
3. The Beginnings of the Common Law- 7
a. (5) Glanvill’s Treatise- 7
BAKER CH. 1 & 2 – Law and Custom in Early Britain | Origins of the Common Law- 7
LECTURE 1: Introduction- 11
b. (6-7) Two 13th Century Land Cases- 13
c. (8) T. Plunknett on the Central Courts- 13
BAKER Ch. 3 – The Superior Courts of Common Law- 15
d. (9-12) Lawyers and Special Pleading- 22
e. (9) Milsom, Novae Narrationes- 22
f. (10) A Case in 1348 – Example of Special Pleading- 22
g. (11) The Thorns Case – Example of Special Pleading- 22
h. (12) An early direction to a civil jury (1466)23
BAKER Ch.4 & 5 – Forms of Action | Jury and Pleading- 23
LECTURE THREE: COMMON LAW PROCEDURE [6-12 | BAKER 4&5]28
i. (13-14) A General picture on the Rise of Common Law- 32
j. (13) AWBS, Invitation to Law- 32
k. (14) Fortesque on the Inns of Court33
4. The Court of Chancery and The Concept of Equity- 33
a. (15a) AWBS on Equity (15a) and Illustrative Cases (15b)33
b. (15b) Early Chancery Cases (where equity provided a just remedy)34
i. Godemond’s Case –- 34
ii. Anon- 34
iii. Anon #2- 35
iv. Non-recognition of Uses at Common Law- 35
BAKER Ch. 6 – The Court of Chancery and Equity- 35
5. The Intellectual World of the Law- 41
a. (16) JH Baker on Legal Culture- 41
b. (17) D. Lemmings, Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar 41
c. (18) AWBS on the Legal Treatise- 42
d. (19) Mathew Hale on the Common Law- 43
e. (20) Blackstone on the Common Law- 43
f. (21) Perry Millar on the US Legal Profession- 44
g. (22) AWBS on the Common Law- 44
BAKER Ch. 10-12 – The Legal Profession | Legal Profession | Law Making- 45
6. Medieval Contract Law- 53
a. (23) A Childs Guide to The History of Contract53
b. (24) A Case of Debt55
c. (25) Wager of Law- 55
d. (26) A Case on Wager of Law- 55
e. (27) A Compulsory Contract55
f. (28) Alice’s Case- 55
g. (29) The Doctrine of Quid Pro Quo- 55
h. (30) The Penal Bond- 55
BAKER Ch. 18 – Contract: Covenant and Debt57
7. Contract Outside the Common Law- 62
a. (31) Case of the University of Cambridge- 62
b. (32) The Goldsmyth’s Case- 62
c. (33) Whitehead’s Case- 62
d. (34) An Embarrassing Sanction- 62
LECTURE 13: CONTRACT OUTSIDE THE COMMON LAW [31-34]62
8. Actions on the Case- 64
a. (35)The Case of the Humber Ferryman- 64
b. (36) The Miller’s Case- 64
c. (37) The Inn Keeper’s Case- 64
d. (38) Waldon v. Marshall64
e. (39) The Farrier’s Case- 64
f. (40) The Surgeon’s Case- 64
g. (41) Fitzherbert on Actions on the Case- 64
h. (42) Rastell on Actions on the Case- 64
BAKER Ch. 19, 23 (401-405) – Contract: Assumpsit and Deceit | Negligence- 64
9. Actions of Assumpsit and Non-Feasance- 69
a. (43) Watton v. Brinth- 69
b. (44) Watkins Case- 69
c. (45) Somerton’s Case- 69
d. (46) Anon – 1435- 69
e. (47) The Shepherd’s Case- 69
f. (48) Pickering v. Thoroughgood- 69
BAKER 333-340 – Contract: Assumpsit and Deceit70
10. 16th Century Contract Developments- 72
a. (49) O Orwell v. Mortoft72
b. (50) Doctor and Student – Naked Promise- 72
c. (51) O Turgys v. Becher73
d. (52) O Slade’s Case- 73
e. (53) J. Rastell, Expositiones Terminorum- 73
f. (54) O Hunt v. Bate- 73
g. (55) O West v. Stowell74
h. (56) O
TURE 1: Origins of the Criminal Procedure and Jury System- 92
2. The Early Modern Trial94
3. The Evolution of the Adversary Trial94
4. Punishment94
BAKER Ch. 29: 512-518 – Pleas of the Crown: Criminal Procedure- 94
LECTURE 2- 94
CIVIL LAW
Introduction
(1) Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law
i. Holmes (1841-1935). The Common Law is comprised of his Lowell Lectures (1880).
ii. The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices the judges’ share with their fellow men. The law embodies the story of a nation’s development. In order to know what it is, we must know what it has been, and what it tends to become.
iii. The substance of the law at any given time pretty nearly corresponds, so far as it goes, with what is then understood to be convenient; but its form and machinery, and the degree to which it is able to work out desired results, depend very much upon its past.
iv. Things which we take for granted have had to be laboriously fought out or thought out in past times. We start with man full grown.
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