Law in Common: Legal Cultures in Late-Medieval England
- ISBN-10
- 0191088471
- ISBN-13
- 9780191088476
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 320
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2019-12-12
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- Tom Johnson
Description
There were tens of thousands of different local law-courts in late-medieval England, providing the most common forums for the working out of disputes and the making of decisions about local governance. While historians have long studied these institutions, there have been very few attempts to understand this complex institutional form of 'legal pluralism'. Law in Common provides a way of understanding this complexity by drawing out broader patterns of legal engagement. Tom Johnson first explores four 'local legal cultures' - in the countryside, in forests, in towns and cities, and in the maritime world- that grew up around legal institutions, landscapes, and forms of socio-economic practice in these places, and produced distinctive senses of law. Johnson then turns to examine 'common legalities', widespread forms of social practice that emerge across these different localities, through which people aimed to invoke the power of law. Through studies of the physical landscape, the production of legitimate knowledge, the emergence of English as a legal vernacular, and the proliferation of legal documents, the volume offers a new way to understand how common people engaged with law in the course of their everyday lives. Drawing on a huge body of archival research from the plenitude of different local institutions, Law in Common offers a new social history of law that aims to explain how common people negotiated the transformational changes of the long fifteenth century with, and through legality.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2019-12-12
- 320 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
Common Law – Civil Law: The Great Divide?
By Frederick Schauer, Nicoletta Bersier, Christoph BezemekThis book offers an in-depth analysis of the differences between common law and civil law systems from various theoretical perspectives.
-
A Common Law for the Age of Statutes
By Guido CalabresiGuido Calabresi thinks it is time for this country seriously to consider returning to a traditional American judicial–legislative balance in which courts would enlarge the common law and would also decide when a rule of law has seen its ...
-
Statutory and Common Law Interpretation
By Kent GreenawaltThe book argues against any simple "textualism," claiming that even reader understanding of statutes depends partly on perceived intent.
-
The Common Law
By Oliver Wendell HolmesIn THE COMMON LAW, the ideas and judicial theory of Holmes can be studied and appreciated.
-
The Common Law: In Large Print
By Oliver Wendell Holmes JrThe Common Law: In Large Print
-
English Common Law in the Age of Mansfield
By James OldhamLd. 606, 91 ER 1305), 288n68 Matheson v. Cam (1762) (MMSS II: 1157), 294 Medcalf v. Hall (1782) (MMSS I: 371, 373, 3 Doug. 113, 99 ER 566), 21, 74, 74n288, 75, 104n138, 368n17 Medlycott v. Elton (1781) (MMSS II: 1044), 261n12 Meres v.
-
The Nature of the Common Law
By Melvin Aron EisenbergNevertheless, it has been unclear what principles courts use—or should use—in establishing common law rules. In this lucid book, Melvin Eisenberg develops the principles that govern this process.
-
Origins of the Common Law
By Arthur Reed HogueWritten for the beginning student as well as the experienced scholar, this introductory analysis of the origin and early development or the English common law provides and excellent grounding for the early study of legal history.
-
A Short Introduction to the Common Law
By Geoffrey SamuelIt adopts an approach which explains the historical development of the common law institutions and procedures whilst also setting them in perspective through a comparative outlook.
-
The Spirit of the Common Law
By Roscoe PoundThis volume is a necessary addition to the libraries of legal scholars and professionals, sociologists, and philosophers.