In the eighteenth century, the English common law courts laid the
foundation that continues to support present-day Anglo-American law.
Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, 1756-1788,
was the dominant judicial force behind these developments. In this
abridgment of his two-volume book, The Mansfield Manuscripts and the
Growth of English Law in the Eighteenth Century, James Oldham presents
the fundamentals of the English common law during this period, with a
detailed description of the operational features of the common law
courts. This work includes revised and updated versions of the
historical and analytical essays that introduced the case transcriptions
in the original volumes, with each chapter focusing on a different
aspect of the law.
While considerable scholarship has been devoted to the
eighteenth-century English criminal trial, little attention has been
given to the civil side. This book helps to fill that gap, providing an
understanding of the principal body of substantive law with which
America's founding fathers would have been familiar. It is an invaluable
reference for practicing lawyers, scholars, and students of
Anglo-American legal history.