"Written with students in mind, Baker: An Introduction to English Legal History provides an introduction to the common law and English legal culture through the dimension of history. It traces in outline, the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.The introduction has become a standard work on the subject. It has now been updated and improved in consequence of the rapid pace of research in legal history over recent year, which has made this new edition a necessity.To assist the student further, this new edition has been fully cross-referenced to the relevant sources found in Baker & Milsom: Sources of English Legal History."
Preface
Table of Statutes
Table of Cases
Kings and Queens of England since 1066
Table of Abbreviations
1 Law and Custom in Early Britain 1
'Communal' Justice 3
From Communal to Personal Authority 8
2 Origins of the Common Law 12
Regional an Itinerant Royal Justice 14
Central Royal Justice 17
Effects on Local Justice 22
The Boundaries of English Law 27
3 The Superior Courts of Common Law 37
The Resurgence of the King's Bench 41
The Exchequer of Pleas 47
Uniformity and Abolition 49
4 The Forms of Action 53
Originating an Action 53
Types of Original Writ 57
Judicial Writs 64
End of the Forms of Action 67
5 The Jury and Pleading 71
From 'Proof' to 'Trial' 72
Medieval Pleading and Legal Development 76
The System Transformed 81
Decline of the Common-Law System 86
End of the Common-Law System 90
6 The Court of Chancery and Equity 97
The Chancery 99