PROFESSORS OF THE LAW by David Lemmings ( 9780198207214 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

PROFESSORS OF THE LAW
BARRISTERS AND ENGLISH LEGAL CULTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£172.50
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ISBN 10:

0198207212

ISBN 13:

9780198207214

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

11 May, 2000

Pages:

414

Description:

The story of the English barristers and the culture of common law between 1690 and 1820 is a complex one. In Professors of the Law David Lemmings provides a wealth of detail about barristers' numbers, education, working habits, reputation, and self-image, and compares them with colonial American lawyers. The broad-ranging conclusion suggests that the bar ultimately failed English society and contributed to the marginalization of the common law.

Synopsis:

What happened to the culture of common law and English barristers in the long eighteenth century? In this wide-ranging sequel to Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730, David Lemmings not only anatomizes the barristers and their world; he also explores the popular reputation and self-image of the law and lawyers in the context of declining popular participation in litigation, increased parliamentary legislation, and the growth of the imperial state. He shows how the bar survived and prospered in a century of low recruitment and declining work, but failed to fulfil the expectations of an age of Enlightenment and Reform. By contrast with the important role played by the common law, and lawyers, in seventeenth-century England and in colonial America, it appears that the culture and services of the barristers became marginalized as the courts concentrated on elite clients, and parliament became the primary point of contact between government and population.In his conclusion the author suggests that the failure of the bar and the judiciary to follow Blackstones mid-century recommendations for reforming legal culture and delivering the Englishmans birthrights significantly assisted the growth of parliamentary absolutism in government.

Illustrations:

8 black and white illustrations

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Returns:

Non-returnable

Some other items by this author:

CRIME, COURTROOMS AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN BRITAIN, 1700-1850