BOOK: John H. BAKER, Introduction to English legal history, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). ISBN 9780198812616, $65.00

(Source: OUP) 

Next month, Oxford University Press is publishing the fifth edition of J.H. Baker’s authoritative introduction to the history of the Englosh common law.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Fully revised and updated, this classic text provides the authoritative introduction to the history of the English common law. The book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present and, combined with Baker and Milsom's Sources of Legal History, offers invaluable insights into the development of the common law of persons, obligations, and property. It is an essential reference point for all lawyers, historians and students seeking to understand the evolution of English law over a millennium.

The book provides an introduction to the main characteristics, institutions, and doctrines of English law over the longer term - particularly the evolution of the common law before the extensive statutory changes and regulatory regimes of the last two centuries. It explores how legal change was brought about in the common law and how judges and lawyers managed to square evolution with respect for inherited wisdom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 John Baker, Professor of the Laws of England, University of Cambridge

Sir John Baker is the Downing Professor of the Laws of England and Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple and was knighted for his services to legal history in 2003.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part one 
1. Law and Custom before 1066
2. The Common Law of England
3. The Superior Courts of Common Law
4. The Forms of Action
5. The Jury and Pleading
6. The Court of Chancery and Equity
7. The Conciliar Courts
8. The Ecclesiastical Courts
9. Judicial Review of Decisions
10. The Legal Profession
11. Legal Literature
12. Law Making
Part two 
13. Real Property: Feudal Tenure
14. Real Property: Uses and Fiscal Feudalism
15. Real Property: Inheritance and Estates
16. Real Property: Family Settlements
17. Other Interests in Land
18. Contract: Covenant and Debt
19. Contract: Assumpsit and Deceit
20. Contract: Some Later Developments
21. Quasi-Contract
22. Property in Chattels Personal
23. Negligence
24. Nuisance
25. Defamation
26. Economic Torts
27. Persons: Status and Liberty
28. Persons: Marriage and its Consequences
29. Pleas of the Crown: Criminal Procedure
30. Pleas of the Crown: The Substantive Criminal Law
Appendix I
Appendix II

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