Common Law and English Jurisprudence 1760-1850

by Michael Lobban

Overview

Questioning accepted views of common law, this book attempts to clarify the nature of common-law practice and the way in which it was envisaged by its practitioners. It asserts that attempts—notably those by Blackstone and Bentham—to expound or criticize common law in essentially theoretical terms were mistaken, and examines the evolution and spread of judicial ideas which were grounded upon the work of moral and political philosophers. Covering important philosophical and political debates of the time and the development of legal theory over a period of 70 years, The Common Law and English Jurisprudence makes a valuable corrective contribution to our understanding of this critical period in English legal history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198252931
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/12/1991
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	8.76(w) x 6.38(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

St John's College, Oxford

Table of Contents

	Abbreviations	ix
1.	Introduction	1
2.	The Common Law and the Commentaries	17
3.	The Logic of the Law	47
4.	The Sources of Legal Judgment	80
5.	Bentham and the Complete Code of Laws	116
6.	Bentham's Classifications and Analyses	155
7.	The Debate over Codification	185
8.	John Austin's Analytical Jurisprudence	223
9.	Rules and Remedies in Early Nineteenth-Century Law	257
	Bibliography	290
	Index	309

Editorial Reviews

"It is an important contribution to the history of legal theory in the common law world....Lobban's thesis is complex and highly original; he is persuasive in arguing for a wholesale revision in historical understanding of nineteenth-century legal evolution."—Journal of British Studies

From the Publisher