The Legal Profession and the Common Law: Historical Essays

529 Pages·1986·22.667 MB·English

by  J. H. Baker

THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND
THE COMMON LAW

THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND
THE COMMON LAW
HISTORICAL ESSAYS
J.H.BAKER
THE HAMBLEDON PRESS
LONDON AND RONCEVERTE
Published by The Hambledon Press, 1986
35 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 7AX (U.K.)
309 Greenbrier Avenue, Ronceverte,
West Virginia 24970 (U.S.A.)
ISBN 0 907628 62 1
History Series 48
©John H. Baker 1986
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Baker, J.H.
The legal profession and the common law:
historical essays. — (History series; 48)
1. Law - England - History and criticism
I. Title II. Series
344.2’009 KD606
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, John Hamilton.
The legal profession and the common law.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Lawyers — Great Britain — History.
2. Common law — Great Britain - History.
I. Title
KD460.B35 1986 349.41 85-30581
ISBN 0 907628 62 1 (U.S.) 344.1
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
W.B.C., Bristol and Maesteg.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword xi
Abbreviations xiii
Table of Statutes xvii
Table of Cases xviii
/. THE LEGAL PROFESSION
1 The Inns of Court in 1388 3
2 Learning Exercises in the Medieval Inns of Court and
Chancery 7
3 The Old Moot Book of Lincoln’s Inn 25
4 Readings in Gray’s Inn, their Decline and Disappearance 31
5 The Old Constitution of Gray’s Inn 39
6 The Inns of Court and Chancery as Voluntary Associations 45
7 The English Legal Profession, 1450-1550 75
8 Counsellors and Barristers 99
9 Solicitors and the Law of Maintenance, 1590-1640 125
II. LEGAL INSTITUTIONS AND LITER A TURE
10 The Changing Concept of a Court 153
11 The Pecunes 171
12 Coke’s Notebooks and the Sources of his Reports 177
13 The Common Lawyers and the Chancery: 1616 205
14 The Newe Littleton 231
15 Sir Thomas Robinson, Chief Prothonotary of the
Common Pleas -43
III. COMMON LA W AND PROCEDURE
16 Criminal Courts and Procedure at Common Law, 1550- 259
1800
17 The Refinement of English Criminal Jurisprudence
1500-1848 303
18 Criminal Justice at Newgate, 1616-1627 325
19 The Law Merchant and the Common Law before 1700 341
20 Origins of the ‘Doctrine’ of Consideration, 1535-1585 369
21 New Light on Slade’s Case 393
IV. THE TUDOR LEGAL TRANSFORMA TION
22 The Dark Age of English Legal History, 1500-1700 435
23 English Law and the Renaissance 461
Index of Names 477
Index of Subjects 487
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 The Lincoln’s Inn moot book 24
2 Legal London in about 1570 44
3 The Courts of King’s Bench and Chancery, c. 1620 152
4 “Daungerous et absurd opinions affirme devant le roy” 170
5 Sir Edward Coke 176
6 Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere facing 210
7 Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam facing 211
8 Edward Littleton. Baron Lyttelton of Munslow 230
9 Thomas Robinson’s notebook 242
10 The Court of King’s Bench, c. 1450-60 302
11 Sir Thomas Walmsley 392
12 Manuscript law reports facing 454
13 Reporters in the Court of King’s Bench, c. 1675 facing 455

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The articles reprinted here appeared first in the following places and
are reprinted by the kind permission of the original publishers.
1 Law Quarterly Review, 92 (1976), pp. 184-7.
2 This chapter appears here for the first time.
3 Law Quarterly Review, 95 (1979), pp. 507-12.
4 This chapter appears here for the first time.
5 Gray a, 81 (1977), pp. 15-19.
6 Quaderni Fiorentini per la storia del pensiero Giuridico
Moderno, 11/12 (1982-83) (Giuffre, Milan), pp. 9-38.
7 Lawyers in Early Modern Europe and America, ed. Wilfred
Prest (Croom Helm, London, 1981), pp. 16-41.
8 Cambridge Law Journal, 27 (1969), pp. 205-29.
9 Cambridge Law Journal, 32 (1973), pp. 56-80.
This chapter appears here for the first time,
by permission of the Citadel Inn of Court.
11 Law Quarterly Review, 98 (1982), pp. 204-9.
12 Cambridge Law Journal, 30 (1972), pp. 59-86.
13 The Irish Jurist, 4 (1969), pp. 368-92.
14 Cambridge Law Journal, 33 (1974), pp. 145-55.
15 Bodleian Library Record (1978), pp. 27-40.
16 Crime in England, 1550-1800, ed. J.S. Cockburn (Methuen,
London, 1977), pp. 15-49, 299-309.
17 Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe and Canada, ed.
Louis A. Knafla (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier
University Press, 1981 for the Calgary Institute for the
Humanities), pp. 17-42.
18 The Irish Jurist, 8 (1973), pp. 307-22.
19 Cambridge Law Journal, 38 (1979), pp. 295-322.
20 On the Laws and Customs of England: Essays in Honor
of Samuel E. Thorne, ed. M.S. Arnold, T.A. Green,
S.A. Scully and S.D. White (University of North
Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1981), pp. 336-58.
21 Cambridge Law Journal, 29 (1971), pt. 1, pp. 51 -67; pt. 2,
pp. 213-36.
22 Legal History Studies, ed. D. Jenkins (University of Wales
Press, Cardiff, 1975), pp. 1-27.
23 Cambridge Law Journal, 44 (1985), pp. 46-61.
PERMISSIONS
The illustrations are reproduced by the kind permission of the following:
1 Cambridge University Library; 2 Guildhall Library, London;
3 Trustees of the British Museum; 4 Cambridge University Library;
5 The Rt Hon. the Earl of Leicester; 6 The Masters of the Bench of
Lincoln’s Inn; 7 National Portrait Gallery, London; 8 National
Portrait Gallery, London; 9 Bodleian Library, Oxford; 10 The Masters
of the Bench of the Inner Temple; 11 Dr J.H. Baker; 12 Cambridge
University Library; 13 Bodleian Library, Oxford.