Shaping the Common Law From Glanvill to Hale, 1188-1688 [Hardcover]

In a series of fifteen vivid essays, this book discusses the contributions of great common-law jurists and singular documentsnamely the Magna Carta and the Laws and Liberties of Massachusettsthat have shaped common law, from its origins in twelfth-century England to its arrival in the American colonies.

Featured jurists include such widely recognized figures as Glanvill, Francis Bacon, Sir Edward Coke, and John Selden, as well as less known but influential writers like Richard Hooker, Michael Dalton, William Hudson, and Sir Matthew Hale. Across the essays, the jurists' personalities are given voice, the context of time and events made clear, and the continuing impact of the texts emphasized. Taken as a whole, the book offers a simple reverence for the achievements of these men and law books and a deep respect for the role historical events have played in the development of the common law.

These elegant essays explore the role of legal literature in the development of common law. Clearly written and easily intelligible, they are a very good read. In a series of vivid essays, this book discusses the judges, law books, and historical events that shaped the common law  from its origins in the twelfth century to its arrival in the new American colonies.Thomas Garden Barnes is Professor Emeritus of History and Law at University of California, Berkeley. He is the editor of the Legal Classics Library for the Gryphon Press. Allen D. Boyer, a lawyer in New York City, serves on the advisory board of the Yale Center for Parliamentary History and is the author ofSir Edward Coke and the Elizabethan Age(Stanford, 20 A delightful, eloquent, and deeply learned tour of the great writers and books of English legal history! Essential reading for Americanists for whom Glanvill, Littleton, Coke, Dalton, Hale, and Magna Carta are much referenced but often less than well understood. This illuminating collection is the product of a career spent working with the textslS@