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(3): Procedure. - Sir Frederick Pollock, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, vol. 2 [1898]

Edition used:

The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. Reprint of 2nd edition, with a Select Bibliography and Notes by Professor S.F. Milsom. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2010). Vol. 2.

Part of: The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


(3)

Procedure.

General Accounts.

For general accounts since Maitland’s see W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, vol. 3; T. F. T. Plucknett, Concise History of the Common Law, 5th ed.; and C. T. Flower, Introduction to the Curia Regis Rolls, pp. 335 ff. (all three already cited).

Writ and Plaint.

On the evolution of writs concerning judicial procedure see Royal Writs in England, ed. R. C. van Caenegem; D. M. Stenton, English Justice; and Brevia Placitata, ed. G. J. Turner (all three already cited). See also G. O. Sayles in Select Cases in Court of King’s Bench, vol. 5 (Seld. Soc., vol. 76 for 1957), pp. lxvii ff. The Selden Society will soon publish some early registers edited by E. de Haas and G. D. G. Hall.

On procedure by bill or plaint see Select Bills in Eyre, ed. W. C. Bolland (Seld. Soc., vol. 30 for 1914); E. F. Jacob, Studies in the Period of Baronial Reform (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, vol. 8, Oxford Univ. Press, 1925); Select Cases of Procedure without Writ, ed. H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles (already cited); Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench, ed. G. O. Sayles, vol. 4 (already cited), pp. lxvii ff.

Procedure and Pleading.

See, generally, C. Johnson, “Notes on Thirteenth Century Judicial Procedure,” English Historical Review, 62 (1947), p. 508; D. W. Sutherland, “Mesne Process upon Personal Actions in the Early Common Law,” Law Quarterly Review, 82 (1966), p. 482; G. O. Sayles in Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench, vol. 2 (Seld. Soc., vol. 57 for 1938), pp. lxxiii ff.

For the rise of inquest procedure itself, see under “Institutional Studies,” sub-heading “Jury,” in Section I of this bibliography. There has been no extended study of the growth of exceptions and other special pleas, although much material is now in print. For the forms of count and defence see Brevia Placitata and Novae Narrationes (both already cited). For the changing pattern of litigation and the place of the general issue, see the introduction to Novae Narrationes, pp. xxv ff., xxxiv ff. For an attempt to examine the significance of the change, see S. F. C. Milsom, “Law and Fact in Legal Development,” Toronto Law Journal, 17 (1967), p. 1.

This book is set in three typefaces, all designed by the doyen of typographers, Hermann Zapf, in the mid-twentieth century. The text is Palatino, designed in 1948 and one of the most widely used faces ever since. The display is Michelangelo, designed in 1950 to accompany Palatino. The marginal notes are set in Optima, designed in 1958, Zapf’s most popular sans-serif typeface.

This book is printed on paper that is acid-free and meets the requirements of the American National Standard for performance of paper for Printed Library Materials, z39.48-1992.(archival)

Book design by Mark McGarry, Texas Type &Book Works, Inc., Dallas, Texas ypography by G&S Typesetters, Inc., Austin, Texas

Printed and bound by Worzalla Publishing Company, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

[p. 377, note 393.] As to the forfeiture of the goods of a man who dies desperate, see Art. 30 of the Preston Custumal (Harland, Mamecestre, vol. iii. p. xxxviii).

[p. 380, note 403.] Add a reference to Records of Leicester, p. 219. In 1293 the burgesses decide that the heir is to have the best cauldron, the best pot and so forth. In Scotland the “heirship movables” were of considerable importance. In the seventeenth century the heir would take, among other things, “the great House Bible, a Psalm-book, the Acts of Parliament.” See Hope’s Minor Practicks, ed. 1734, p. 538.

[p. 390, note 27.] An interesting historical account of the Scottish law of marriage by Mr. F. P. Walker will be found in Green’s Encyclopædia of the Law of Scotland. Pre-Tridentine catholicism seems to find its best modern representative in this protestant kingdom.

[p. 509, note 140, and p. 666, note 376.] The Annals of Winchester, p. 25, and Thomas Wykes, p. 235, differ about the number of the compurgators, which may have been 25 or 50.

[p. 562, note 400.] So the burgess of Preston who has charged a married woman with unchastity must proclaim himself a liar holding his nose with his fingers: Harland, Mamecestre, vol. iii. p. xl.

1 But in certain contexts it is common to speak of movable and immovable goods; in particular the usual form of a bond has “obligo omnia bona mea mobilia et immobilia.”