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Examines the period of the formation of the basic tenets of the British Constitution which form the basis for modern British and American government and legal tradition.
Originally published: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908. xxviii, 547 pp. Although Maitland never intended to publish these lectures, they have long been regarded as one of the best introductions to the English Constitution. Delivered in the winter of 1887 and spring of 1888, and edited and published in 1908 by one of Maitland's students, Herbert A.L. Fisher, they cover the period from 1066 to the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than a narrative historical format, they focus on describing the work of the constitution during five distinct moments in English history: 1307, 1509, 1625, 1702 and 1887. They provide an entry to some of the major concepts he later expounded in his se...
Ancient Greeks and Romans often wrote that the best form of government consists of a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Political writers in the early modern period applied this idea to government in England, Venice, and Florence, and Americans used it in designing their constitution. In this history of political thought James Blythe investigates what happened to the concept of mixed constitution during the Middle Ages, when the work of the Greek historian Polybius, the source of many of the formal elements of early modern theory, was unknown in Latin. Although it is generally argued that Renaissance and early modern theories of mixed constitution derived from the revival of cl...
Professor Bellamy places the theory of treason in its political setting and analyses the part it played in the development of legal and political thought in this period. He pays particular attention to the Statute of Treason of 1352, an act with a notable effect on later constitutional history and which, in the opinion of Edward Coke, had a legal importance second only to that of Magna Carta. He traces the English law of treason to Roman and Germanic origins, and discusses the development of royal attitudes towards rebellion, the judicial procedures used to try and condemn suspected traitors, and the interaction of the law of treason and constitutional ideas.
Groundbreaking new approach to the idea of treason in medieval England, showing the profound effect played by gender.
First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This is the first book covering those who abused and misused the legal system in medieval England and the initial attempts of the Anglo-American legal system to deal with these forms of legal corruption. Maintenance, in the sense of intermeddling in another person's litigation, was a source of repeated complaint in medieval England. This book reveals for the first time what actually transpired in the resultant litigation. Extensive study of the primary sources shows that the statutes prohibiting maintenance did not achieve their objectives because legal proceedings were rarely brought against those targeted by the statutes: the great and the powerful. Illegal maintenance was less extensive than frequently asserted because medieval judges recognized a number of valid justifications for intermeddling in litigation. Further, the book casts doubt on the effectiveness of the statutory regulation of livery. This is a treasure trove for legal historians, literature scholars, lawyers, and academic libraries.