Law / History of law

The Story of Law

by John M. Zane

Written for the layman as well as the attorney, The Story of Law is the only complete outline history of the law ever published. "It is," too, noted journalist William Allen White of the original edition, "the...

A Storm Over This Court: Law, Politics, and Supreme Court Decision Making in Brown V. Board of Education

by Jeffrey D. Hockett

On the way to offering a new analysis of the basis of the Supreme Court's iconic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Jeffrey Hockett critiques an array of theories that have arisen to explain it and Supreme...

A Concise History of the Common Law

by Theodore Plucknett

As always during its long history, English common law, upon which American law is based, has had to defend itself against the challenge of civil law's clarity and traditions. That challenge to our common law...

Government by Judiciary

by Raoul Berger

The Justices, who are virtually unaccountable, irremovable, and irreversible, have taken over from the people control of their own destiny.

— Raoul Berger

It is the thesis of this monumentally argued book...

Dickens and the Rise of Divorce: The Failed-Marriage Plot and the Novel Tradition

by Kelly Hager

Since Ian Watt's Rise of the Novel, the history of prose fiction has privileged the courtship plot. Kelly Hager proposes an equally powerful but overlooked narrative focusing on the failed marriage. Hager's...

Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People's Justice

by Karen Houppert

On March 18, 1963, in one of its most significant legal decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that all defendants facing significant jail time have the constitutional right...

Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England

by A. V. Dicey

This volume brings together a series of lectures A. V. Dicey first gave at Harvard Law School on the influence of public opinion in England during the nineteenth century and its impact on legislation. It is...

Constitutional Paradigms and the Stability of States

by Noel Cox

This book examines the influence of constitutional legal paradigms upon the political stability and viability of states. It contributes to the literature in the field by focussing on how constitutional flexibility...

Codification, Macaulay and the Indian Penal Code: The Legacies and Modern Challenges of Criminal Law Reform

by Wing-Cheong Chan & Barry Wright

To mark the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Indian Penal Code, sixteen international experts were invited to discuss its legacy within the common law world. This resulting book comprises not only...

Ratio and Voluntas: The Tension Between Reason and Will in Law

by Kaarlo Tuori

From the ancient beginnings of Western legal tradition, law has been conceived as traversed by a fundamental tension between power (will) and reason. This volume examines the tension between these two poles...

That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right. Revised and Updated Edition.

by Stephen P. Halbrook

That Every Man Be Armed, the first scholarly book on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, has played a significant role in constitutional debate and litigation since it was first published in 1984....

The Supreme Court in the Early Republic: The Chief Justiceships of John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth

by William R. Casto & Herbert A. Johnson

An insightful look at the first Supreme Court and the controversies that surrounded the judicial body

Inheritance Law and Political Theology in Shakespeare and Milton: Election and Grace as Constitutional in Early Modern Literature and Beyond

by Joseph S. Jenkins

Reading God's will and a man's Last Will as ideas that reinforce one another, this study shows the relevance of England's early modern crisis, regarding faith in the will of God, to current debates by legal...

The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I: In Two Volumes

by Frederick Pollock & Frederic William Maitland

First published in 1895, Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland's legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone...

Vagrancy in Law and Practice under the Old Poor Law

by Audrey Eccles

Drawing on extensive archival research and in-depth study of both statute law and local administrative records, this book examines the complexities of vagrancy law and the realities of its practice during the...

Another Country, Another Life: Calumny, Love, and the Secrets of Isaac Jelfs

by J. Patrick Boyer

Quiet Isaac Jelfs led many hard lives, his escape from each wrapped in deep secrecy. In 1869 he reached Toronto and started his new life with his new wife and his new name. His great-grandson follows that journey,...

Constitutionalism and the Separation of Powers

by M J C J C Vile

Arguably no political principle has been more central than the separation of powers to the evolution of constitutional governance in Western democracies. In the definitive work on the subject, M. J. C. Vile...

Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850

by David Lemmings

Focusing on the 'long eighteenth century' this collection of essays charts the transition of British legal proceedings from early scenes of noise and disorder, to a much more rigid and solemn atmosphere by the...

Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics, Discourse

by Benjamin Isakhan

This book proposes a significant reassessment of the history of Iraq, documenting democratic experiences from ancient Mesopotamia through to the US occupation. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and referring...

Dissenters, Radicals, Heretics and Blasphemers: The Flame of Revolt That Shines Through English History

by John Hostettler

Shows the historical importance of challenges to the state and powerful groups. Demonstrates how rights we take for granted have been acquired and set into law over time thanks to the actions of committed men...