Volume 8, the third of the historical volumes of A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence, offers a history of legal philosophy in common-law countries from the 17th to the 19th century. Its main focus (like that of Volume 9) is on the ways in which jurists and legal philosophers thought about law and legal reasoning. The volume begins with a discussion of the ‘common law mind’ as it evolved in late medieval and early modern England. It goes on to examine the different jurisprudential traditions which developed in England and the United States, showing that while Coke’s vision of the common law continued to exert a strong influence on American jurists, in England a more positivist approach took root, which found its fullest articulation in the work of Bentham and Austin.
Table of Content
Volume 8: A History of the Philosophy of Law in the Common Law World, 1600-1900 by Michael Lobban.- 1. Precursors.- 2. The Age of Sir Edward Coke. 3.- The Age of Selden and Hale.- 4. The Age of Blackstone and Kames.- 5. The Age of The Federalist.- 6. The Age of Bentham And Austin.- 7. The Age of Maine and Holmes.- Conclusion.- Bibliography.
About the author
Michael Lobban is Professor of Legal History, having joined the Department of Law in 2013. After finishing his doctorate at Cambridge University, he held a Junior Research Fellowship at St. John’s College, Oxford. From 1991 to 1996, he taught in the department of law at the University of Durham, before moving first to Brunel University (1997-2000) and then to Queen Mary, University of London.