Author Description

This Is A Companion To Baker & Milsom, Sources Of English Legal History: Private Law To 1750. Like That Volume It Is A Collection Of Illustrative Original Materials, Many Of Which Have Not Been Printed Before. Unlike Private Law, However, The History Of Public Law Has Until Recently Been Neglected By Legal Historians. There Has Consequently Been No Previous Collection Of This Kind. Whereas Older Books Of Constitutional Documents Focused On Statutes And Formal Records, The Present Book Concentrates More On Forensic Arguments And Judicial Decisions Which Illuminate The Establishment Of The Rule Of Law And The Emergence Of Legal Principles In The Field Of Public Law. Public Law Is Here Taken In A Broad Sense To Include Not Only The Respective Powers Of The Crown And Parliament But Also Jurisdictional Disputes, The Protection Of Personal Liberty, Judicial Review Of Administrative Action, And Criminal Law. Texts In French Or Latin Have Been Translated Or Retranslated From The Original Sources. All The Texts Have New Apparatus, Including (for Reported Cases) References To The Record-- Provided By Publisher.