2. PERIOD OF EVOLUTION & TRANSITION c560 – 1180s
New project – started October 2009 – to provide new editions and
translations of all English legal codes, edicts and treatises produced up
to 1215. Likely to become the premier site …. At present uses – printed
source finder & bibliography?
6. Also on OxLIP+
Dictionary of Old English
based on records written in English
between 600 and 1150 A.D.
No search facility
Just browse alphabetically.
7. Legal language
1066 – oral debates were in Norman
French (Law French)
Latin remained the language of court
records
1650 use of both Latin & law French
banned – but not fully abandoned till
c1700
8. Law French
Baker’s Manual of Law French
(2nd ed., 1990) KL44.BAK 1990
www.anglo-norman.net Anglo-Norman
Online Hub
10. SS (Selden Society)
Learned society & publisher
1 – 120 (2003) available via
HeinOnline
Legal Hist S464.4a
Centenary Guide (HeinOnline/print)
+ SS web pages to see coverage
11.
12.
13.
14. Citations on Page
Highlights all citations. If the cited material is Print icon also
in HeinOnline, it’s a hyperlink to that page downloads pdf -
Toggle ON/OFF. easier reading?
15. Dawn of the Common law
Henry II (1154-1189)
Ultimate authority from the King
A coherent legal system England-
wide
Stationary royal court, independent
of King’s presence
Treatise “Glanvill(e)”
16. HeinOnline has both text (1604) & translation (1818), but
recommend Hall’s 1965 translation Legal Hist G546a965
18. Year books c1250-c1535
1280s form established
Divided by legal sessions (terms)
Anglo-French dialect of the Court
Absence of reasoned judgments
Fade out temp. H7/H8 – growing
judicial positivism?
19. Year book citations
Include these elements
Term - Regnal Year – Folio (if printed) –
Placitum (case # within the term)
Trin 3 Hen VII, fo.10, pl.3
3 Hen 7, T. f.10, pl. 3
TT H7, f.10, pl.3
Modern commentaries & histories should specify which printed
editions they have used (see prelims or bibliography)
20. Year books printed by 1610
1-10 Edw. III 1-20 Hen. VI
17-39 Edw. III 21-39 Hen. VI
40-50 Edw. III Edw. IV
(Quadragesms) Long Quinto (5
Liber assisarum Edw. IV)
Edw. III (assizes & Edw. V, Ric.
circuit cases) III, Hen.VII & Hen.
Hen. IV & V VIII
21. EEBO Early English Books Online
digital facsimile page images
1473 to 1700
“virtually every” work printed in
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales
and Br.N.America
works in English printed elsewhere
25. Year books printed in (17th
Edw II ed. Maynard (1678), 1679-
1680 reprint of 1610 canon became the
standard text, but is the least accurate
Browse all titles
Under Y &
Click on + to
expand
26. Year books printed (19th on
Selden Society
Ames Foundation (Ric.II)
Available via Hein (latest SS only in
print)
33. Manuscript Year books
Nicholson’s Register of manuscripts of
year books extant Legal Hist S464.4d
See English Legal Mss guides at Ref Bibl.
B168a-b
Microfiche can be ordered to the Law
Library via Request
You may also have to travel to Record
Offices and other Libraries
35. Nominate Reports
YB gradually morphed into reports
c1450 case notes increasingly associated
with name of “reporter”
Gradually more discussion of substantive
law – not necessarily reasoned decisions
(eg Slade’s Case (1602))
Bulk of pre-1660 reports are “casual
gleanings from dead men’s studies”
per Baker, IELH (4th ed.,2002) at p183
36. Citations for cases pre-1866
Either ER citation or a (weird)
abbreviation or both
(1551) 1 Plow. 1, 75 E.R. 1
(1797) 1 Bos. & Pul. 41
(1865) 46 E.R. 574, 3 De G.J. & S. 97
(1856) 6 Moo. Ind. App. 426, 19 E.R. 160
37. With ER citation Without ER citation
English Reports FIRST try citation in
electronic db or
Exact reprint of
original Nominate check panel (Main RR)
reports
is it convertible into
ER citation?
Main Reading Room No?
Cw UK 120 E50
AND via electronic
Try [1940] 7 CLJ
databases 261
Nominate reports
in Cw UK 100 A10 – 100
Y25
Others in Cw UK 120
38. English Reports via
Subscription databases (OXLIP+ SSO)
Westlaw UK
HeinOnline
Justis UK
CD-Rom
Via CommonLII – free, anywhere
http://www.bailii.org/form/search_ers.html
Search via party names, browse by year – not
yet by citation
39. WestlawUK – English Reports
OK = Case
Monopolies
Either citation form
No need for date
Don’t use and/&
2 M W 519
40. Despite highlight, Case Analysis rarely useful unless result
screen shows a small C to left of party names. This
indicates
“Judicial consideration or case history available”
41. ER in HeinOnline
If entering a citation remember to
select either English Report Citation or
“Nominative” (sic) Citation before
clicking Locate
42. Chart Tool
Possible to Sort
eg by period to find out
all volumes for a period
43. State Trials on Justis Within OU
network just
click Continue
to Justis
Outside
network Log In
to OXLIP+
first, find
Justis, then
Continue
45. Beyond the E.R.
There are other pre 1866
printed reports not in ER see
Guide to the Law Reports & Statutes
(4th ed.,1962) Ref Bibl Cw UK
S974c4
SS publications
46. Early Reporters of Repute
Plowden’s Commentaries(2v) ER 75
KB 1550-1580
Coke’s Reports (13v) ER 76-77
KB 1572-1616
Bulstrode’s Reports (3v) ER 80-81
KB 1610-1625
47. Later Printed Reports
1650 – 1750 inferior collections
1750- KB reporters
Burrow, Cowper, Douglas are high
quality
By end of 18th century periodical
series commissioned for publication
Durnford & East (KB), Blackstone (CP), Vesey Junior
(Ch), Anstruther (Exch)
1865/6 Council of Law Reporting
“modern era”
55. Early Legislation
Early enactments various
names/forms eg Magna Carta
Assizes H2, R1, J
Provisions H3
Statuta (1270s) Edw1
By 1407 established procedure:
debate of 2 houses of
parliament, agreement, royal assent
56. Statutes of the Realm
“Best” (by royal command Geo3) but
incomplete & contains apocrypha
Only to 1713
HeinOnline
Making of the Modern World (MOML)
59. Other Sources for Acts
Justis has Statutes at Large (Ruffhead)
EEBO (printed pre 1700)
ECCO (Eighteenth Century
Collections Online)
Last resort: visit to House of Lords RO
complete from 1497 including those
never printed
60. Titles of all Acts from 1497-1999
To restrict search to
Public Acts only put
HL/PO/PU/I
In RefNo field
To restrict search to
Local, Personal or
Private put
HL/PO/PB/1
http://tinyurl.com/search4legislation
61. Local & Personal Acts
Chronological Tables of Local
Acts and of Private and Personal
Acts
26,000 Local Acts passed 1797 - 1973 and the 11,000
Private, later described as Personal, Acts passed 1539-
1973.
www.opsi.gov.uk/chron-
tables/chron-index
BOPCRIS C18th Official Parliamentary
Publications Portal for some texts
1702-1834
65. HeinOnline Legal Classics
Pro – often with translations
Con – not necessarily best edition
eg Doctor & Student – SS is better!
Bracton
Littleton’s Institutes
Coke’s Institutes
Blackstone’s Commentaries (US ed)
Also Beale’s Bibliography of EE Law Books
66. Bracton Online (8 SS = select passages)
De legibus et consuetudinibus
Angliae c1220s
68. USA Academic web pages
Medieval Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbo
ok2.html
Yale’s Avalon Project: documents in
law history and diplomacy
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/
69. Viner’s Abridgment
“one of the first recourses for
lawyers searching into pre-1800 law”
per Prof Sir J.H. Baker
Viner, Charles – A general
abridgment of law & equity etc etc
- 18th Century Collections Online
(ECCO) or HeinOnline
70.
71. MOMW
The Making of the Modern World
1450-1850
digital facsimiles of 61,000 works
Focus is on economic
matters, commerce, business, financ
e, social conditions, politics, trade
and transport.
72. MOML Making of Modern Law
Legal Treatises
published
1800-1926
Can include
editions of
earlier works
73. Legal History Journals
American Journal of legal history AJLH
Criminal Justice History CJH
Journal of Legal History JLH
Law and History Review LHR
Legal history (formerly Australian Journal
of Legal History) LH
Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis
Tijds Rgeschied or Leg.Hist.Rev.
Revue historique de droit francais et
etranger RHD
75. Finding journal articles
Index to Legal Periodicals
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Bibliography of British & Irish History
International Medieval Bibliography
76. BBIH
Bibliography of
British & Irish
History
bibliography of
books,
articles in books,
articles in over 600
history
78. Everywhere & all ages!
Spelling Problems! Eg colour = 2 hits; color = 26 hits
But Not overlapping!
Using wildcard * (colo*r) = 40 hits
Also in print at Ref 103
Notas del editor
A word of warning with ER on HeinOnline: Sometimes it fails to understand perfectly legitimate Nominative citation eg 4 Leo. You can use HeinOnline’s Index Chart to find the full name of the report and put that in the search box or – drill down via the English Report Link under Browse, then scroll down and click on the Index of Cases and find the case name there. (Once you have chosen volume remember to click in left had panel to open Table of Contents so you can go to initial letter a bit quicker.)