Legal History in United Kingdom

History Departments

• Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge,
• Cardiff University, Wales,
• City of Bath College, Bath,
• Dundee University- Scotland, Dundee
• The Greenwich Maritime Institute, London
• Leicester University, Leicester
• Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
• The University of Aberdeen
• The University of Strathclyde, Scotland
• University College London, London
• University College Northampton, Northampton
• The University of Cambridge, Cambridge
• University of Derby, Derby
• University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne
• University of Wales, Aberystwyth
• University of Wales, Lampeter
• The University of Warwick
• University of Westminster, London
• Wellcome Unit History Medicine, Oxford, Oxford
• Worcester College of Higher Education

Internet Resources

https://vi.uh.edu/pages/bob/elhone/elhmat.html
English legal history materials.

https://www.lgu.ac.uk/lawlinks/history.htm
British legal history: selected links on the web.

https://www.law.harvard.edu/Programs/selden_society/
The Selden Society, founded in 1887 to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of English law.

https://www.law.harvard.edu/Programs/ames_foundation/index.html
The Ames Foundation, founded in 1910 by contributions of the friends of James Barr Ames for the purpose of continuing the advance of legal knowledge and aiding the improvement of the law.

https://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
The TEAMS Middle English Texts are published for TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages) in association with the University of Rochester by Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. The goal of the TEAMS Middle English text series is to make available to teachers and students texts which occupy an important place in the literary and cultural canon but which have not been readily available in student editions. The National Endowment for the Humanities has supported the creation of this website through a grant to sustain the Middle English Texts Series.

Bibliography

Adams, George B. The Origin of the English Constitution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 869063

Adams, Henry, Henry Cabot Lodge, Ernest Young, and J. Laurence Laughlin. Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law. Boston: Little, Brown, 1876. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 1356897

Ault, Warren O. Private Jurisdiction in England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1923. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 22130057

Baker, John H. The Common Law Tradition; Lawyers, Books and the Law. London: Hambledon Press, 2000. ISBN: 1852851813

Baker, John H. An Introduction to English Legal History . 4th ed. London:
Butterworths LexisNexis, 2002. ISBN: 0406930538

Baker, John H., General. ed. The Oxford History of the Laws of England. v. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003-. v.1: ISBN: 0198258976, v.6: ISBN: 0198258178

Bellamy, John G. The Law of Treason in England in the Later Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. ISBN: 052107830X

Bigelow, Melville M. History of Procedure in England From the Norman Conquest. The Norman Period (1066-1204). Boston: Little, Brown, 1880. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 4816906
Notes: Also available online in MOML and HeinOnline (subscription databases)

Bolland, William C. The General Eyre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 3410671

Bolland, William C. The Year Books: Lectures Delivered in the University of London at the Request of the Faculty of Laws. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 4030286

Brand, Paul A. Kings, Barons and Justices : the Making and Enforcement of Legislation in Thirteenth-Century England. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Fourth series, 56. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0521372461

Brand, Paul A. The Making of the Common Law. London: Hambledon Press, 1992. ISBN: 1852850701
Abstract: A collection of articles and essays republished from various sources. Most are specifically about the history of the English Common Law focusing on the 13th century.

Brand, Paul A. Observing and Recording the Medieval Bar and Bench at Work: the Origins of Law Reporting in England. London: Selden Society, 1999. ISBN: 0854231307
Abstract: Selden Society lecture delivered in the Old Hall of Lincolns Inn, July 6th 1998.

Brand, Paul A. The Origins of the English Legal Profession. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. ISBN: 0631154019

Cam, Helen M. The Hundred and the Hundred Rolls; an Outline of Local Government in Medieval England. London: Methuen, 1930. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 5878822

Cam, Helen M. Law-Finders and Law-Makers in Medieval England: Collected Studies in Legal and Constitutional History. London: Merlin Press, 1962. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 736424

Cam, Helen M. Studies in the Hundred Rolls Some Aspects of the Thirteenth-Century Administration. Proceedings Against the Crown (1216-1377). Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, 6. New York: Octagon Books, 1921. ISBN: 0374961654

Carter, Albert T. A History of the English Courts. 7th ed. London: Butterworth, 1944. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 155550216
Abstract: Title of earlier editions, A history of English legal institutions.

Chrimes, Stanley B. English Constitutional History. 4th ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1967. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 29971

Dawson, John P. The Oracles of the Law. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Law School, 1968. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 433170

Digby, Kenelm E., and William M. Harrison , eds. An Introduction to the History of the Law of Real Property: With Original Authorities. 5th ed. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1897. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 84314913

Fleming, Robin. Domesday Book and the Law Society and Legal Custom in Early Medieval England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN: 052163038X

Hale, Matthew, and Charles M . Gray. The History of the Common Law of England . Classics of British Historical Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press , 1971. ISBN: 0226313042

Harding, Alan. The Law Courts of Medieval England. London: Allen & Unwin, 1973. ISBN: 0049421069

Harmer, Florence E. Anglo-Saxon Charters and the Historian . Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1938. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 13389298

Helmholz, R. H. The Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction From 597 to the 1640s . Oxford history of the laws of England, 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 0198258976

Holdsworth, William S. A History of English Law. 17 Vols. London: Methuen, 1902-1972. ISBN: 0421051507
Abstract: Vols. 1-3 discuss the medieval period.

Holt, James C. Magna Carta. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0521277787

Hunnisett, R. F. The Medieval Coroner. Cambridge Studies in English Legal History ed. Holmes Beach, Fla.: W.W. Gaunt, 1961. ISBN: 0912004312

Hyams, Paul R. King, Lords, and Peasants in Medieval England : the Common Law of Villeinage in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Oxford historical monographs ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. ISBN: 019821880X

Jolliffe, John E. A. The Constitutional History of Medieval England: From the English Settlement to 1485 . 4th ed. London: A. and C. Black, 1961-. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 1140656

Kern, Fritz. Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages. New York: Harper & Row, 1956, 1970.
Abstract: Translation by S. B. Chrimes of Kern’s Gottesgnadentum und Widerstandsrecht in fruheren Mittelalter. Pt. 1, The divine right of kings and the right of resistance in the early Middle Ages; Pt. 2, Law and constitution in the Middle Ages. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 1045649

King, Edward B., and Susan J. Ridyard. Law in Mediaeval Life and Thought. Sewanee Mediaeval Studies, 5 ed. Sewanee, Tenn.: The Press of the University of the South, 1990. ISBN: 0918769256

Kynell, Kurt von S. Saxon and Medieval Antecedents of the English Common Law. Studies in British History, 59. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 2000. ISBN: 0773478736

Levy-Ullmann, Henri. The English Legal Tradition: Its Sources and History. London: Macmillan, 1935. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 2481282

Liebermann, Felix. U¨Ber Die Leges Edwardi Confessoris. Halle a.S.: M. Niemeyer, 1896. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 60714648

Liebermann, Felix. Zu Den Gesetzen Der Angelsachsen . Weimar: Hof-Buchdruckerei, 1885. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 81237964
Notes: Available online in MOML (subscription database)
Abstract: Text in German.

Lyon, Bryce D. A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1980. ISBN: 0393951324

Maitland, Frederic W., and Herbert A. L. The Constitutional History of England, a Course of Lectures. London: Cambridge University Press, 1908. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 492651

Maitland, Frederic W., and Francis C. Montague . A Sketch of English Legal History. New York: Putnam, 1915. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 22514197

McKechnie, William S. Magna Carta; a Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. 2nd ed. Glasgow: J. Maclehose and Sons, 1914. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 2882098

Meekings, Cecil A. F. Studies in 13th Century Justice and Administration. London: Hambledon Press, 1981. ISBN: 0950688231

Milsom, Stroud F. C. Historical Foundations of the Common Law. 2nd ed. London: Butterworths, 1981. ISBN: 0406625026

Milsom, Stroud F. C. The Legal Framework of English Feudalism: the Maitland Lectures Given in 1972. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. ISBN: 0521209471

Milsom, Stroud F. C. Studies in the History of the Common Law. London: Hambledon Press, 1985. ISBN: 0907628613

Morris, William A. The Early English County Court. An Historical Treatise With Illustrative Documents. Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1926. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 2487358

Morris, William A. The Medieval English Sheriff to 1300. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1927. ISBN: 0719003423

Musson, Anthony. Medieval Law in Context: the Growth of Legal Consciousness From Magna Carta to the Peasants’ Revolt. Manchester Medieval Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0719054931

Musson, Anthony. Public Order and Law Enforcement: the Local Administration of Criminal Justice, 1294-1350. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1996. ISBN: 0851156355

Musson, Anthony, and W. M. Ormrod . The Evolution of English Justice: Law, Politics and Society in the Fourteenth Century. London: Macmillan, 1998. ISBN: 0333676718

Oliver, Lisi, ed. The Beginnings of English Law. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations, 14. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Palmer, Robert C. The County Courts of Medieval England, 1150-1350. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1982. ISBN: 0691053413
Notes: Also available online as an ACLS Humanities E-book, University of Michigan Library (subscription database)
Palmer, Robert C.. English Law in the Age of the Black Death, 1348-1381. Studies in Legal History ed. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina, 1993. ISBN: 0807820997

Petit-Dutaillis, Charles E. Studies and Notes Supplementary to Stubbs’ Constitutional History. 3 Vols. in 2. University of Manchester publications, 38, 91 & 197. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1908-1929. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 61641216

Plucknett, Theodore F. T. A Concise History of the Common Law. 5th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 933912

Plucknett, Theodore F. T. Legislation of Edward I: The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in Hilary Term 1947 . Oxford: Clarendon, 1962. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 983476

Plucknett, Theodore F. T Statutes and Their Interpretation in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 7525542

Plucknett, Theodore F. Studies in English Legal History. London: Hambledon Press, 1983. ISBN: 0907628117

Pollock, Frederick, and Frederic W. Maitland. The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. 2 Vols. 2nd ed. Cambridge: University Press, 1923. ISBN: 0521095158 (v.1) 0521095166 (v.2)

Potter, Harold, and Albert K. R. Kiralfy. Potter’s Historical Introduction to English Law and Its Institutions. 4th ed. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1958. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 1822942

Powell, Edward. Kingship, Law, and Society: Criminal Justice in the Reign of Henry V . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. ISBN: 019820082X

Richardson, Henry G., and George O. Sayles. Law and Legislation From Aethelberht to Magna Carta. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 879833

Sayers, Jane E. Law and Records in Medieval England: Studies on the Medieval Papacy, Monasteries and Records . Collected Studies Series, CS278. London: Variorum Reprints, 1988. ISBN: 0860782263

Squibb, George D. The High Court of Chivalry; a Study of the Civil Law in England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 408398

Stewart Brown, Ronald D. The Serjeants of the Peace in Medieval England and Wales. University of Manchester Publications. Historical Series, 71. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1936. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 4563847

Stubbs, William, and James Cornford. The Constitutional History of England in Its Origin and Development. 3 Vols. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1897. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 38560614

Sutherland, Donald W, ed. Quo Warranto Proceedings in the Reign of Edward I, 1278-1294. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 408401

Van Caenegem, Raoul C. The Birth of the English Common Law. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN: 0521356822

Wilkinson, Bertie, ed. The Constitutional History of Medieval England: 1216-1399, With Select Documents. 3 Vols. London:
Longmans, Green, 1948-1958. ONLINE COMPUTER LIBRARY CENTER (OCLC) NUMBER (USED IN WORLDCAT): 1862005

Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999-. ISBN: 0631134964