An Introduction to English Legal History

by John Hamilton Baker

Book Overview

This book 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 years, which has made this new edition a necessity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0406930538
• ISBN13: 9780406930538
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Length: 600 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Work

I don't understand the other reviewer's rating for this book. Even if he got the first edition by mistake rather than the 4th, it too was astonishingly good and deserved 5 stars. Frankly, this is the only comprehensive single volume history of the English common law that is fully up-to-date. Professor Baker is incredibly skilled at summarizing a complex or controversial matter in a paragraph or a page (which for students does require close reading). His writing is clear and easy to comprehend. The sourcebook that he and Professor Milsom edited is a valuable supplement to this text, but not required. Some lawyers really like Plucknett's Concise History of the Common Law, which is very good, but it's 50 years out of date.