Baker and Milsom's Sources of English Legal History is the definitive source book on the development of English private law. This new edition has been comprehensively revised and udpated to incorporate new sources discovered since the original publication in 1986, and to reflect developments in recent scholarship.All the sources included are translated into modern English, offering an accessible inroad to the leading primary materials for students of the history of the common law.The sources themselves - revealing the operation of courts across a wide range of personal and economic disputes - offer a rich resource for historians researching the development of the English government, society, and economy. Their significance in shaping the common law spans beyond England, and ensures the collection is an essential reference point for all those interested in the history of the common law in any jurisdiction.
Sir John Baker is Downing Professor Emeritus of the Laws of England and Honorary 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.
Preface to the Second EditionPreface to the First Edition1: Tenure: services and incidents2: Actions concerning land3: Family interests and settlements at common law4: Uses, wills, and trusts5: Executory interests under the Statute of Uses6: The term of years7: Copyhold8: Debt9: Detinue10: Covenant11: Account12: Trespass13: Trespass on the case14: Assumpsit for misfeasance15: Assumpsit for nonfeasance16: Assumpsit in lieu of debt17: Assumpsit against executors for money18: Various developments of the money counts19: Consideration and privity20: Actions on the case for deceit21: Actions on the case for conversion22: Actions on the case for negligence23: Actions on the case for nuisance24: Actions on the case for various kinds of economic loss25: Actions on the case for defamationIndex