This book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. It has become a standard work on the subject. It has now been updated and improved in consequence of the rapid pace of research in legal history over recent years, which has made this new edition a necessity.

PART ONE 1. Law and Custom in Early Britain 2. Origins of the Common Law 3. The Superior Courts of Common Law 4. The Forms of Action 5. The Jury and Pleading 6. The Court of Chancery and Equity 7. The Concilliar Courts 8. The Concilliar Courts 9. Judicial Review of Decisions 10. The Legal Profession 11. Legal Literature 12. Law Making PART TWO 13. Real Property: Feudal Tenure 14. Real Property: Feudalism and Uses 15. Real Property: Inheritance and Estates 16. Real Property: Family Settlements 17. Other Interests in Land 18. Contract: Covenant and Debt 19. Contract: Assumpsit and Deceit 20. Contract: Some Later Developments 21. Quasi-Contract 22. Property in Chattels Personal 23. Negligence 24. Nuisance 25. Defamation 26. Economic Torts 27. Persons: Status and Liberty 28. Persons: Marriage and its Consequences 29. Pleas of the Crown: Criminal Procedure 30. Pleas of the Crown: The Substantive Criminal Law

J.H. Baker , Downing Professor of the Laws of England and Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge; Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple