English Legal History Research Guide

Contents of this guide include print, micro-media and Internet resources available to facilitate research in legal history at Georgetown Law.

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English Secondary Sources

There are many more general sources of English legal history than can be listed here. A few are included, as they have proved their worth over the years. Some of these sources are helpful for early American or colonial research.

  • Baker, John H. An Introduction to English Legal History. 4th ed. London: Dayton, Ohio: Butterworths LexisNexis, 2004. KD532.B34 1990
  • Baker, John H. and S.F.C. Milsom. Sources of English Legal History: Private Law to 1750. London: Butterworths, 1986. KD720.S6 1986
  • Brand, Paul.Kings, Barons and Justices: The Making and Enforcement of Legislation in Thirteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. KD608 .B73 2003
  • Cale, Michelle. Law and Society: An Introduction to Sources for Criminal and Legal History from 1800. Kew, Surrey: PRO Publications, 1996. KD530 .C34 1996
  • Carter, A.T. A History of English Legal Institutions. Reprint edition of London: Butterworths, 1902. Littleton, Co.: F.B. Rothman, 1986. KD532.C37 1986r
  • Cobbett, William. Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England From the Norman Conquest in 1066, to the Year 1803, From Which Last-Mentioned Epoch It is Continued Downwards in the Work Entitled, "Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates.[1066-1803]" 36 vols. London: R. Bagshaw, 1806-1820. KD4190 .C63 1806
  • Coquillette, Daniel R. The Anglo-American Legal Heritage: Introductory Materials. 2nd ed. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2004. KD532 .C67 2004
  • Cockburn, J.S. A History of English Assizes, 1558-1714. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.KD6913.C6
  • Feldbrugge, F.J.M., ed. The Law's Beginnings. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2003. K160 .L397 2003
  • Fifoot, C.H.S. History and Sources of the Common Law. Reprint ed. of 1949 ed. New York: Greenwood Press, 1970. KD671.A7 F5 1970r
  • Graham, Jenny. The Nation, the Law, and the King: Reform Politics in England, 1789-1799. 2 vols. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000. KD606 .G68 2000
  • Griffiths, Bill. An Introduction to Early English Law. Norfolk: Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995. KD606 .G75 1995
  • Holdsworth, William S. A History of English Law. 16 vols. London; Methuen: Sweet and Maxwell, 1966.KD532.H58 1966r
    • Consult Holdsworth when choosing a topic or clarifying obscure legal words. Each volume is chronological from medieval times to 1875. The last volume is the index volume. It is also a good source of primary and secondary sources.
  • Holdsworth, William S. Sources and Literature of English Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925.KD530.H6 1925
  • Kirkby, Diane & Catharine Coleborne, eds. Law, History, Colonialism: The Reach of Empire. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press; New York: Distributed in the USA by Palgrave, 2001.KZ1269 .E49 2001
  • Maxwell, L. Howard. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. 8 vols. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 1955. KD51 .L4
    • Called Sweet & Maxwell's Legal Bibliography. Vols. 1: English law before 1800; vol. 2: English law 1801-1950. The other volumes are for other commonwealth countries. Although a bit old, Sweet & Maxwell's Legal Bibliography is an excellent place to start, especially when unfamiliar with old legal terms, or the breadth of the subject matter.
  • Milsom, S.F.C. Historical Foundations of the Common Law. 2nd ed. London: Butterworths, 1981.KD671.M54 1981
  • Oldham, James. English Common Law in the Age of Mansfield. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. KD612 .O44 2004
  • Oldham, James. The Mansfield Manuscript and the Growth of English Law in the Eighteenth Century. 2 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. KD358.M33 O35 1992
  • Plucknett, T.F.T. A Concise History of the Common Law. 5th ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1956.KD532.P55 1956
  • Pollock, F. and F.W. Maitland. The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. 2nd ed. 2 vols. London: Cambridge University Press, 1968. KD532.P6 1968
  • Ross, Charles Stanley. Elizabethan Literature and the Law of Fraudulent Conveyance: Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate Pub. Co., 2003. PR428.L37 R67 2003
  • Winfield, P.H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925. KD392.W5