American Legal History
Introduction: The English Heritage
Brief History of England
· Ancient Britonsà Romansà Anglo SaxonsàNormans
· Edward the Confessor: the last Anglo Saxon king; defeated by
· Norman Conquest: William the Conquerer: 1066 Battle of Hastings
Norman Dynasty
· Completely changes Anglo Saxon gov’t system
· Creates common law
· Carved out royal jurisdiction for felonies, certain civil disputes, and taxation
· Introduced writ process for initiating actions
· Formed centralized courts
· French language used for nobles and the official court language
· Introduced juries and judges to whom the king delegated his authority as his representatives in the courts
· King John (1166-1216)
o forced to sign the Magna Carta (1215): guarantees that the king won’t interfere in certain activities of the nobility; a list of rights; set up the concept that no person was above the law, not even the king; est’s Due Process of law as the bulwark against arbitrary power
· Birth of treatise writers: unofficial clarifiers who drew law together by explaining the significance of leading cases. Judges were influenced by treatise writers, who recorded the law.
o Henry de Bracton: The Laws and Customs of England (1300); a famous treatise writer
o Blackstone, much later.
Norman Court System:
· Court of Common Pleas: the civil jurisdiction court, in which K disputes were decided—any legal actions; could get cash damages; Common law developed here.
· Court of King’s Bench: the criminal court
· Chancery Court: equity court; relief requested is something other than cash; ex: specific performance, interpreted wills
· Court of the Exchequer: tax disputes, any fight w/ gov’t over $; financial matters involving the state
· (Ecclesiastical Courts added later): heard family matters, marriage, sexual crimes, etc
· Perogative Courts: ruled over by the king and the king could make up stuff if he wanted
o Branches:
o Court of Star Chamber: could give whatever result with no citation to precedent; seen as tyrannical; evil; went away eventually
o Ecclesiastical Court of High Commission: highest ct for ecc’al matters; created by Elizabeth
· all these courts met in the same room: Westminster Hall
· The Law Lords: a committee of the House of Lords; this is the final court of appeal in the British system; this instead of a Supreme Court
· In America, to simplify, Federal courts have jurisdiction over criminal, equity, and common law issues
The King and the Chief Justice: James I and Sir Edward Coke
· Civil Law: the written code; the most important actor: the legislator; judge and attys are to apply the law, not discover it or interpret it
· v. Common Law (England): English CL was founded on local customs, traditions, and precedent; method of proceeding was the case, and its manner of proceeding was adversarial; the rules of CL were derived from prior cases and therefore were unwritten; inductive reasoning; judge and the lawyer are the most important actors—they are to “discover” the law
· Ecclesiastical Courtsà which heard cases on matters of the church
o William the Conquerer est’ed
o Elizabeth nationalized them w/ help of Coke: removed them from under the power of the pope to under the power of the throne
o Church had jurisdiction over marriage, family issues, inheritance of personal property, sexual offenses, and breaches of faith
· Henry VIII
o Supremacy Act: broken all ties b/t the Crown and the Church
o Instigated the English Reformation when the pope denied his request for an annulment
§ ER shifted power to the crown
· Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther
· New Courts:
o Ecclesiastical Court of High Commission, which replaced the pope in criminal matters and became the legal mechanism for enforcing conformity to the new Church of England
o Court of Chancery: not a CL ct, so bound by less formality of procedure and wasn’t hindered by precedent or rules; by 1460 it’s jurisdiction enlarged and it became as important as the CL cts; dispensed justice with the dictates of conscience
o Court of Star Chamber: created in 1487; functioned as the ing’s tool for the prosecution of crimes and offenses like riot, libel, forgery, perjury, and conspiracy; acted outside of CL; speedy procedures; rulings could not be appealed; Henry VIII used to persecute dissidents and non-conformists.
Queen Elizabeth I
· Nationalized ecclesiastical cts
· Created Ecc High Commission
· Edward Coke was Attorney General
· When Eliz dies, her sister’s son (Mary Queen of Scots’ son) becomes king: James I
James I
· James VI of Scotland
· Gets the throne in 1607 after Elizabeth and all hell breaks lose
· He does not like Parliament and thinks the King is suppose to be higher than CL; wanted Ecc’al courts to have broad jurisdiction and be “higher” than other courts, like KB and Exchequer
· the Ecclesiastical High Commission expanded greatly
· Divine Right of Kings: James
n he added: “Moreover, had this case proven difficult, the King himself should have decided it—the most religious, learned, and judicious king that ever this kingdom had!” This was a slap in the face to Coke.
· During the following year, writs of prohibitions flowed out from Ct of Common Pleas under Coke’s seal.
· Bancroft complained to James I of all the writs Coke was issuing, who ordered common law judges and ecclesiastics to come to Whitehall to give their reasons and cite authorities on the issue of whether the writs of prohibitions were valid (and determine if Ecc ct had jurisdiction over CL matters). The debate was over the interpretation of Eliz’s original patent authorizing the Ct of High Commission. Coke argued that ecc’al cts had authority, as long as no temporal matters (temporal issue= civil, as opposed to ecc’al) were involved. But when a temporal issue was involved, it must be transferred to the CL cts—even in causes of clearly ecc’al nature. Coke also says the King can’t take any cause out of any ct and judge it himself. James became very angry here. Coke fights w/ the King and eventually apologizes to avoid being sentenced to death. Coke says the CL protects the king and is above the king; the king says he protects the CL.
o Coke loses, and King wins, but Coke’s views that the King is not above the law is inspiring to Americans
· After this meeting, Coke begins issuing writs of prohibition again. Coke is promoted to KB to remove him from Common Pleas. He also becomes a treatise writer: Coke’s Institutes and Coke’s Commentaries—these were standard legal texts w/ Blackstone in 19th century. His writings were very influential to the framers—probably second intellectual architect to Am Rev, after Blackstone.
· **Recurrent Theme = “Sovereign is Not Above the Law” – Coke started and American Revolution used.
· Civil War: Charles I executed; Cromwell’s Protectorate rules from 1653-59, collapses; monarchy restored in Charles II—Restoration, then James II…
