Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
same, similar, or a building block to the law of today. In earlier
times this is both statutory law and the common law of the courts. The
Magna Carta, which is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first statute of
England and is listed first in the "Statutes of the Realm" and the
"Statutes at Large". The law sections of Chapters 7 - 18 mainly quote
or paraphrase almost all of these statutes. Excluded are statutes which
do not help us understand the development of our law, such as statutes
governing Wales after its conquest and statutes on succession rights to
the throne.
The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of
applying the law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains
some examples of cases.
Money is expressed in pounds, shillings, pence, scaetts, or
marks, which is a Danish denomination. There are twenty shillings in a
pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are
abbreviated: "s." The pre-Norman English shilling was divided into 4
pence or pennies. In Henry I's time, the shilling was divided into 5
pence. The Norman shilling was introduced by Henry II and was divided
into 12 pennies. This penny was literally one pennyweight of silver, so
a pound sterling thus weighed 240 pennyweights. Pence are abbreviated
"d.", for the Roman denarius. For example, six shillings and two pence
is denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser
denomination; there were 20 scaetts to one shilling. There were no
coins of the denomination of shilling during pre-Norman times.
Dedication and Acknowledgements
A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This
book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar
College, without whom it would never have been written. Much
appreciation goes to Professor James Curtin of Loyola Law School for
his review and comments on this book's medieval period: Chapters 4-10,
and especially his comment that "I learned quite a bit about life in
those days from your work." Thanks go to Loyola University Law School
Professor George Anastaplo for introducing me to Professor Curtin. Much
appreciation goes to Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith of Northwestern
University's History Department for his review and comments on this
book's Tudor and Stuart periods: Chapters 11-17, especially his comment
that he learned a lot. Thanks go to Northwestern University Law School
Professor Steven Presser for introducing me to Professor Smith.
Finally, many thanks go to fellow Mensan William Wedgeworth for
proof-reading the entire book.
Table of Contents
Chapters:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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