Created for a class on Legal History Sources in 2011 in the Bodleian Law Library

1. English Legal History
Elizabeth Wells
Bodleian Law Library
November 2011

2. PERIOD OF EVOLUTION & TRANSITION c560 – 1180s
New project – started October 2009 – to provide new editions and
translations of all English legal codes, edicts and treatises produced up
to 1215. Likely to become the premier site …. At present uses – printed
source finder & bibliography?

4. ORB: Online Reference Book: Medieval Legal
History

5. Anglo-Saxon Charters?

6. Also on OxLIP+
 Dictionary of Old English
 based on records written in English
 between 600 and 1150 A.D.
 No search facility
 Just browse alphabetically.

7. Legal language
 1066 – oral debates were in Norman
French (Law French)
 Latin remained the language of court
records
 1650 use of both Latin & law French
banned – but not fully abandoned till
c1700

8. Law French
 Baker’s Manual of Law French
(2nd ed., 1990) KL44.BAK 1990
 www.anglo-norman.net Anglo-Norman
Online Hub

9. Earliest Glimpse c1118
Legal
Hist
H521a
(trans)
EEBO http://tinyurl.com/yefm66c (image 416)

10. SS (Selden Society)
 Learned society & publisher
 1 – 120 (2003) available via
HeinOnline
 Legal Hist S464.4a
 Centenary Guide (HeinOnline/print)
+ SS web pages to see coverage

14. Citations on Page
Highlights all citations. If the cited material is Print icon also
in HeinOnline, it’s a hyperlink to that page downloads pdf -
Toggle ON/OFF. easier reading?

15. Dawn of the Common law
Henry II (1154-1189)
 Ultimate authority from the King
 A coherent legal system England-
wide
 Stationary royal court, independent
of King’s presence
 Treatise “Glanvill(e)”

16. HeinOnline has both text (1604) & translation (1818), but
recommend Hall’s 1965 translation Legal Hist G546a965

17. Case law sources
Common
Bench aka
Common
Pleas
c.1460 Inner
Temple Ms

18. Year books c1250-c1535
 1280s form established
 Divided by legal sessions (terms)
 Anglo-French dialect of the Court
 Absence of reasoned judgments
 Fade out temp. H7/H8 – growing
judicial positivism?

19. Year book citations
 Include these elements
Term - Regnal Year – Folio (if printed) –
Placitum (case # within the term)
Trin 3 Hen VII, fo.10, pl.3
3 Hen 7, T. f.10, pl. 3
TT H7, f.10, pl.3
Modern commentaries & histories should specify which printed
editions they have used (see prelims or bibliography)

20. Year books printed by 1610
 1-10 Edw. III  1-20 Hen. VI
 17-39 Edw. III  21-39 Hen. VI
 40-50 Edw. III  Edw. IV
(Quadragesms)  Long Quinto (5
 Liber assisarum Edw. IV)
Edw. III (assizes &  Edw. V, Ric.
circuit cases) III, Hen.VII & Hen.
 Hen. IV & V VIII

21. EEBO Early English Books Online
 digital facsimile page images
 1473 to 1700
 “virtually every” work printed in
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales
and Br.N.America
 works in English printed elsewhere

22. If you’re
going to use
EEBO a
lot, having
STC # is
quickest

23. In EEBO
Search box type
STC and 9650

25. Year books printed in (17th
 Edw II ed. Maynard (1678), 1679-
1680 reprint of 1610 canon became the
standard text, but is the least accurate
Browse all titles
Under Y &
Click on + to
expand

26. Year books printed (19th on
 Selden Society
 Ames Foundation (Ric.II)
 Available via Hein (latest SS only in
print)

27. www.bu.edu/law/seipp/index.html

28. Scroll
down –
40
Custom
Search
boxes in
total

29. Result Screen - Search Oxford as Place
Printed
version
Vol. 111
Selden
Click on Society
Seipp #
for a lot
more
detail!

30. Always
scroll to
foot
because
…

31. Do
Keep
scrolling
right to
foot …

32. Useful stuff at foot!
Eng.Legal Mss
Project

33. Manuscript Year books
 Nicholson’s Register of manuscripts of
year books extant Legal Hist S464.4d
 See English Legal Mss guides at Ref Bibl.
B168a-b
 Microfiche can be ordered to the Law
Library via Request
 You may also have to travel to Record
Offices and other Libraries

34. King’s Bench c.1460 Inner Temple Ms

35. Nominate Reports
 YB gradually morphed into reports
 c1450 case notes increasingly associated
with name of “reporter”
 Gradually more discussion of substantive
law – not necessarily reasoned decisions
(eg Slade’s Case (1602))
 Bulk of pre-1660 reports are “casual
gleanings from dead men’s studies”
per Baker, IELH (4th ed.,2002) at p183

36. Citations for cases pre-1866
 Either ER citation or a (weird)
abbreviation or both
 (1551) 1 Plow. 1, 75 E.R. 1
 (1797) 1 Bos. & Pul. 41
 (1865) 46 E.R. 574, 3 De G.J. & S. 97
 (1856) 6 Moo. Ind. App. 426, 19 E.R. 160

37.  With ER citation  Without ER citation
 English Reports  FIRST try citation in
electronic db or
 Exact reprint of
original Nominate  check panel (Main RR)
reports
is it convertible into
ER citation?
Main Reading Room No?
Cw UK 120 E50
 AND via electronic
 Try [1940] 7 CLJ
databases 261
 Nominate reports
in Cw UK 100 A10 – 100
Y25
 Others in Cw UK 120

38. English Reports via
Subscription databases (OXLIP+ SSO)
 Westlaw UK
 HeinOnline
 Justis UK
 CD-Rom
 Via CommonLII – free, anywhere
http://www.bailii.org/form/search_ers.html
Search via party names, browse by year – not
yet by citation

39. WestlawUK – English Reports
OK = Case
Monopolies
Either citation form
No need for date
Don’t use and/&
2 M W 519

40. Despite highlight, Case Analysis rarely useful unless result
screen shows a small C to left of party names. This
indicates
“Judicial consideration or case history available”

41. ER in HeinOnline
If entering a citation remember to
select either English Report Citation or
“Nominative” (sic) Citation before
clicking Locate

42. Chart Tool
Possible to Sort
eg by period to find out
all volumes for a period

43. State Trials on Justis Within OU
network just
click Continue
to Justis
Outside
network Log In
to OXLIP+
first, find
Justis, then
Continue

44. Step One
Step
Two
Step
Three

45. Beyond the E.R.
 There are other pre 1866
printed reports not in ER see
Guide to the Law Reports & Statutes
(4th ed.,1962) Ref Bibl Cw UK
S974c4
 SS publications

46. Early Reporters of Repute
 Plowden’s Commentaries(2v) ER 75
KB 1550-1580
 Coke’s Reports (13v) ER 76-77
KB 1572-1616
 Bulstrode’s Reports (3v) ER 80-81
KB 1610-1625

47. Later Printed Reports
 1650 – 1750 inferior collections
 1750- KB reporters
Burrow, Cowper, Douglas are high
quality
 By end of 18th century periodical
series commissioned for publication
Durnford & East (KB), Blackstone (CP), Vesey Junior
(Ch), Anstruther (Exch)
 1865/6 Council of Law Reporting
“modern era”

48. Opening of the
Pleas Rolls
M 1 Hen VII
CP40/894

49. aka Kew
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guide-
listing.htm

51. http://aalt.law.uh.edu/

53. How to read a roll tutorial: http://aalt.law.uh.edu/readcasedebt.html

54. Crown in Parliament
Edward I

55. Early Legislation
 Early enactments various
names/forms eg Magna Carta
 Assizes H2, R1, J
 Provisions H3
 Statuta (1270s) Edw1
 By 1407 established procedure:
debate of 2 houses of
parliament, agreement, royal assent

56. Statutes of the Realm
 “Best” (by royal command Geo3) but
incomplete & contains apocrypha
 Only to 1713
HeinOnline
Making of the Modern World (MOML)

58. Print
icon

59. Other Sources for Acts
 Justis has Statutes at Large (Ruffhead)
 EEBO (printed pre 1700)
 ECCO (Eighteenth Century
Collections Online)
Last resort: visit to House of Lords RO
complete from 1497 including those
never printed

60. Titles of all Acts from 1497-1999
To restrict search to
Public Acts only put
HL/PO/PU/I
In RefNo field
To restrict search to
Local, Personal or
Private put
HL/PO/PB/1
http://tinyurl.com/search4legislation

61. Local & Personal Acts
 Chronological Tables of Local
Acts and of Private and Personal
Acts
 26,000 Local Acts passed 1797 - 1973 and the 11,000
Private, later described as Personal, Acts passed 1539-
1973.
 www.opsi.gov.uk/chron-
tables/chron-index
 BOPCRIS C18th Official Parliamentary
Publications Portal for some texts
1702-1834

62. Results of
Browse
option then
drilling down

63. Royal Proclamations/Orders in
Council

64. Treatises
Glanvill c.1187-1189

65. HeinOnline Legal Classics
 Pro – often with translations
 Con – not necessarily best edition
eg Doctor & Student – SS is better!
 Bracton
 Littleton’s Institutes
 Coke’s Institutes
 Blackstone’s Commentaries (US ed)
 Also Beale’s Bibliography of EE Law Books

66. Bracton Online (8 SS = select passages)
De legibus et consuetudinibus
Angliae c1220s

67. www.anglo-norman.net
Britton (ed Nichols)
Black Book of the
Admiralty (ed
Twiss)
Page by page
viewing

68. USA Academic web pages
Medieval Sourcebook
 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbo
ok2.html
Yale’s Avalon Project: documents in
law history and diplomacy
 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/

69. Viner’s Abridgment
 “one of the first recourses for
lawyers searching into pre-1800 law”
per Prof Sir J.H. Baker
 Viner, Charles – A general
abridgment of law & equity etc etc
- 18th Century Collections Online
(ECCO) or HeinOnline

71. MOMW
 The Making of the Modern World
 1450-1850
 digital facsimiles of 61,000 works
 Focus is on economic
matters, commerce, business, financ
e, social conditions, politics, trade
and transport.

72. MOML Making of Modern Law
 Legal Treatises
published
1800-1926
 Can include
editions of
earlier works

73. Legal History Journals
 American Journal of legal history AJLH
 Criminal Justice History CJH
 Journal of Legal History JLH
 Law and History Review LHR
 Legal history (formerly Australian Journal
of Legal History) LH
 Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis
Tijds Rgeschied or Leg.Hist.Rev.
 Revue historique de droit francais et
etranger RHD

74. Another facet to HeinOnline

75. Finding journal articles
 Index to Legal Periodicals
 Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
 Bibliography of British & Irish History
 International Medieval Bibliography

76. BBIH
 Bibliography of
British & Irish
History
 bibliography of
books,
 articles in books,
 articles in over 600
history

77. http://www.ox.libguides.com/law-history

78. Everywhere & all ages!
Spelling Problems! Eg colour = 2 hits; color = 26 hits
But Not overlapping!
Using wildcard * (colo*r) = 40 hits
Also in print at Ref 103