Making Legal History Approaches and Methodologies [Hardcover]

The first book to address the way that the broad and inclusive subject of legal history is researched and written.Leading legal historians reveal the methods, priorities and concerns that inspire, guide and constrain researchers in legal history. Essays range across various jurisdictions, cultures and subjects and provide a rich insight into the complexities and dynamism of researching into the history of law.Leading legal historians reveal the methods, priorities and concerns that inspire, guide and constrain researchers in legal history. Essays range across various jurisdictions, cultures and subjects and provide a rich insight into the complexities and dynamism of researching into the history of law.Drawing together leading legal historians from a range of jurisdictions and cultures, this collection of essays addresses the fundamental methodological underpinning of legal history research. Via a broad chronological span and a wide range of topics, the contributors explore the approaches, methods and sources that together form the basis of their research and shed light on the complexities of researching into the history of the law. By exploring the challenges posed by visual, unwritten and quasi-legal sources, the difficulties posed by traditional archival material and the novelty of exploring the development of legal culture and comparative perspectives, the book reveals the richness and dynamism of legal history research.Introduction Anthony Musson and Chantal Stebbings; Foreword: reflections on 'doing' legal history Sir John Baker; 1. Editing law reports and doing legal history: compatible or incompatible projects Paul Brand; 2. The indispensability of manuscript case notes to eighteenth-century barristers and judges James Oldham; 3. Judging the judges: the reputations of nineteenth century judges and their sources Patrick Polden; 4. Benefits and barriers: the making of Victorian legal history Chantal Stebbings; 5. The historical turn in late nineteenth-century l3