Judges, Legislators and Professors: Chapters in European Legal History

by R. C. van Caenegem

Overview

On the basis of ten concrete examples the author shows by what process and for what historical reasons continental law and common law have come to be so different. In so doing van Caenegem provides a historical introduction to continental law understandable to readers familiar with the common law, and vice-versa. This study is derived from the professor's lectures at Cambridge in 1984-85, in which lawyers from Europe, Great Britain and the United States participated. Judges, Legislators and Professors does not follow the traditional path of describing the development of ideas, but tries a new approach by interpreting legal history as, to a large extent, EEthe result of a power struggle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521438179
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/27/1992
Series:	Goodhart Lectures
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. The Common Law is Different: Ten Illustrations: 1. The ambiguity of the term 'law'; 2. Appeal: a recent development; 3. English law is a 'seamless web'; 4. The rule of exclusion; 5. A land without a constitution?; 6. The consequences of parliamentary absolutism; 7. The haphazard development of criminal law; 8. Prosecution and verdict in criminal trials; 9. A law uncodified; Jurists are dispensable; Part II. The Mastery of the Law: Judges, Legislators and Professors: 10. Some facts; 11. Explanations: the 'national spirit'?; 12. Explanations: authoritarian Roman law and democratic England?; 13. Explanations: political history; Part III. The Divergent Paths of Common Law and Civil Law: 14. Common law and civil law: the parting of the ways; 15. The ways remain separate; 16. Which diverged from which?; Part VI. Which is Best, Case Law, Statute Law, Or Book Law: 17. The judges: amateurs and professionals; 18. The courts and their creators; 19. Codification: a weapon against the judiciary; 20. Law professors serve the powers that be; 21. Eight criteria of good law.

Editorial Reviews

'In Judges, Legislators and Professors Professor Raoul van Caenegem, a Belgian scholar who for many years has brought his knowledge of European legal history to some of the most intractable problems of early Common Law, sets out many instances where English law stands apart from the mainstream of western legal culture ... van Caenegem sees the distinctions as the result of essentially political developments which have meant that, at the critical moment in a country's legal history when a national law took shape, either judges or legislators or jurists were the dominant forces in that process.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

'This book brings fascinating insights into an area of law that has often been written about. His clear and lucid style makes the book a pleasure to read ... definitely recommended to all who are interested in legal history, comparative law or the legal system in general.' Malaya Law Review

From the Publisher