Introduction to English Legal History

Abstract This book provides a concise introduction to the history of the main institutions and doctrines of English law, from the earliest times to the present. It retains the structure of the fourth edition (2003) but has been heavily revised to take account of recent research and thinking on the topics addressed. Citations of the companion source-book, Baker and Milsom, have all been amended to refer to the enlarged second edition (2010). The concentration is on the common law rather than on the many statutory regimes and reforms of the last two centuries, but stories begun in earlier periods have been carried through in outline to the present.