Fact Sheet for Law and FAS Graduate Students

Prof. Donahue
Spring 2009

Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England

FACT SHEET FOR LAW AND
FAS GRADUATE STUDENTS

Course	Law 42200A 1/S (Legal History: Introduction to English Legal History
Lectures	Mon., Wed. 11:10–12:00, Room Harvard Hall 102 (in Harvard Yard)
Section	Tue., 10:40–12:00, Room LILC 202 (for law students and FAS graduate students).
Required books	Donahue, Materials on English Legal and Constitutional History (multilith, available in the Law School Distribution Center) Baker, Introduction to English Legal History (Available in the Law School Coop.).
Requirements	Short paper (see below), take-home exam (distributed Wed., 29 Apr., due Fri., May 15; see syllabus).

Note: FAS graduate students need not cross-register to take this course. They should register for Medieval Studies 117, but they should follow the course as described here.

PAPERS AND PAPER TOPICS

As I mentioned in the syllabus, you should turn in your first draft of your paper when we take up the topic of your paper in class. (I will make some exceptions to this if the rule leads to too many people doing seventeenth century papers.) I will read your draft and make some suggestions. (This is the reason that I want the drafts spread out over the semester; if they get jammed up at the end, I haven’t got time to do an adequate job in commenting.) The final draft is not due until the end of exam period (5/15/2009, Ms. Cohen, Hauser 518), but you may turn it in at any time. The paper should focus on a particular document. It may be any document in the Materials or any document in Baker and Milsom’s Sources or a document that you find on your own. It should be no longer than five double-spaced pages, exclusive of footnotes. It should contain an idea, supported by evidence. The principal body of evidence should be primary source material, i.e., the document(s) on which the paper is focused. Here is a list of the kinds of topics that people have written successful papers about over the last couple of years:

Women in Aethelberht’s Code (2 papers)—One argued that women were just like slaves, the other that their position depended on their wealth.

Writs precipe before Glanvill [van Caenegem, Royal Writs]—revisited the old debate about whether these writs changed from “executive” to “judicial.”

The Stone Priory Case (1150) [van Caenegem, Cases before Richard I]—complicated patronage relationships in a “truly feudal world.”

Roman Law Influence on Glanvill [Mats.]—what do we mean by “influence”?

The Assize of Northampton [(1176), Mats. p. 137–40]—focused on the background of the rebellion of the king’s sons.

The Assize of Mort Dancestor: An Analysis [Sources, pp. 25–30]—can what it was being used for in 1200 be used to figure out the purpose was in 1176?

Meriden c. Giffard [Select Canterbury Cases (1270)]—why did the bishop of Worcester refuse to institute a man who seems to have been properly presented to a benefice?

An Analysis of Quia Emptores [Mats., § 5B]—politics and property at the end of the 13th century.

Bracton on maritagia and Gifts Subject to modus [based on the Thorne edition of Bracton]—came to the conclusion that the pre-De Donis state of the law was not as clear as De Donis suggests.

The Court of the Bishop of Ely at Littleport [from Maitland’s ed. in Select Pleas in Manorial Courts]—ecology in the 13th century.

Hamo of St. Edmunds at the Fair court of St. Ives [based on Selden Society edition of the rolls of the court]—told a wonderful story of how the court made trouble for an alnager who thought he was going to throw his weight around.

Paris v. Page (1302) [Mats., § 7A]—the law and the decline of villeinage.

Excuse under the Statute of Labourers [from Ames Foundation eds. of YBB of Richard II].

The Sumptuary Law of Edward III (1363) [Mats. § 6F]—relationship of the statute to the cloth trade.

Mills and the Miller’s Case [Mats. § 7C]—nice placing of the case in context by finding material on the changing business arrangements concerning mills in the late 14th century.

The Church and the Chancery: A Study of The Case of the University of Cambridge [Mats., § 7C]—using some readily available printed material the author was able to cast a wholly new light on this case by illuminating both the prior and subsequent history of the transactions involved.

Chancellor Rotherham’s Jurisprudence [based on cases in Sources and Mats]—argues that R’s view of equity was closer to St. German’s than it was to Wolsey’s.

Treason Never Doth Prosper: Rex v. Merks (1401) [88 Selden Society 102]—treason and benefit of clergy in the early 15th century.

Laissez-Faire in the Fifteenth Century? (Case of Gloucester School [(1410), Sources, p. 613])—The development of the concept of damnum absque iniuria, or the notion that economic competition is no wrong.

Rex v. Excester (from the Selden ed. of a Yearbook of Henry 6 (1423))—Damon Runyon in the 15th century.

Debt in Equity [begins with Mats and St. German then goes to W.T. Barbour’s book on contracts in early equity]—doubts that the development was quite as clean as St. German makes it out to be.

St. German on the Enforcement of Naked Promises [Sources, p. 483]—conscience and Roman law in the sixteenth century.

Lord Dacre of the South (1535) [Sources, pp. 105–11]—an analysis of the arguments in an attempt to figure out how much of the case was “law” and how much “politics.”

Early Defamation Actions in the Central Royal Courts (mid-16th c.) [Helmholz, Select Cases on Defamation to 1600]—the common law takes over an action from the church courts, ideas and all.

Copyholds and the Common Law in Dell v. Hygden [(1595), Sources, p. 203]—When copyholds are incorporated in the common law did that mean fees tail too?

The Duke of Norfolk’s Case (Mats.)—what was really going on?

Transformation of Personal Actions in English Law: Slade v. Morley [(1602), Sources, p. 420] and Eason v. Newman [(1596), Sources, p. 537]—the imposition of the Roman ideas of property and obligation on the English scheme of actions.

The Roads to Aldred’s Case [(1610) HSCL, p. 100]: Obstructions of Light in Early English Law—when an agreed-upon principle really isn’t agreed-upon?

Bushell’s Case [Vaughn 135, 124 Eng. Rep. 1006 (1671)]—the principle of non-coercion of the criminal trial jury.

PAPER SIGN-UP SHEET

Just print out the sheet, circle your general area of interest, and turn the sheet into me. You can, of course, range outside these topics, but I want to spread it out over the semester a bit better than we did last time.

Your Name:

_________________________________________________________________________

Tue., Feb 3	Roman law or canon law ideas in English law
Tue., Feb 10	Aethelberht’s Code (or other A-S material)
Tue., Feb 17	Land law and dispute resolution before Glanvill
	Glanvill
Tue., Feb 24	Ecclesiastical jurisdiction
	13th century plea rolls
Tue., Mar 3	Property and the family: Statutes De Donis or Quia Emptores
Tue., Mar 10	Pleading
	The Legal Profession
Tue., Mar 17	Debt, detinue, covenant or account
Tue., Mar 31	Personal Actions in Local Courts
	Origins and development of trespass
	Assumpsit or Slade’s Case
Tue., Apr 7	Criminal law
	King making and unmaking
Tue., Apr 14	Tudor and Stuart Constitutions
	Order, social structure and the law
Tue., Apr 21	Equity
	The conciliar courts
	Uses and the statute
Tue., Apr 28	Contract after Slade’s Case

[Home Page] [Syllabus]

Please send comments to Rosemary Spang

URL: http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/cdonahue/courses/echfas/info/lawfacts.html
last modified: 01/25/09

Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England