History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions

by John H. Langbein, Renée Lettow Lerner, Bruce P. Smith

This introductory text explores the historical origins of the main legal institutions that came to characterize the Anglo-American legal tradition, and to distinguish it from European legal systems. The book contains both text and extracts from historical sources and literature. The book is published in color, and contains over 250 illustrations, many in color, including medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings, books and manuscripts, caricatures, and photographs. Two great themes dominate the (1) the origins, development, and pervasive influence of the jury system and judge/jury relations across eight centuries of Anglo-American civil and criminal justice; and (2) the law/equity division, from the emergence of the Court of Chancery in the fourteenth century down through equity's conquest of common law in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The chapters on criminal justice explore the history of pretrial investigation, policing, trial, and sentencing, as well as the movement in modern times to nonjury resolution through plea bargaining. Considerable attention is devoted to distinctively American developments, such as the elective bench, and the influence of race relations on the law of criminal procedure. Other major subjects of this book include the development of the legal profession, from the serjeants, barristers, and attorneys of medieval times down to the transnational megafirms of twenty-first century practice; the literature of the law, especially law reports and treatises, from the Year Books and Bracton down to the American state reports and today's electronic services; and legal education, from the founding of the Inns of Court to the emergence and growth of university law schools in the United States.

Genres: Law, History, American, Nonfiction

1184 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2009

Reviews

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes it is obvious that a book is outstandingly good. A lot of the material covered here makes for fascinating history, showing the variety in the ways a society's rules may change: by royal preemption of local court business, by ingenious competition for business between courts, by exaptation of one process for another purpose, by the outmoding of a convention too long ossified, by drastic legislation. It's also a really well constructed textbook, citing seminal secondary sources at length then glossing them in the subsequent notes, and providing primary sources for each development in the law along with questions to highlight the issues.

[Joshua Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tome of a book gives a scholarly and erudite review of the common law, including answers to the question that I primarily read it to answer: how did the fusion of law and equity come about in the common law? Along the way I learned a good deal about the profession, and the development of the adversary criminal justice system, and of appellate review. This is a good foundational text to understanding the common law system, despite occasional blindness toward certain issues and a tendency to gloss over others.

[Paul Callister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent photographs and history. Best layout in a law book ever. Great account of history. I'm learning a ton.