The first historical treatment of tort law in England during a formative period of its development.

Any title containing dates immediately raises questions: why start there?, why stop then? When the answer is not immediately obvious - the start and end of a monarch's reign, say, or a war - there may be little consolation in the reader's discovering that the contents of such books almost always break their titles' implicit promises to confine themselves to events between certain dates. So it might be as well to come clean right at the very start, and admit that nothing special or symbolic happened in either 1900 or 1950 that will serve as the beginning and end points of this book. Indeed, in a discipline like law where so much turns on interpreting what has happened in the past, a pedantically strict attitude to start dates is always likely to create more problems than it solves. As readers may have guessed from the suspiciously round numbers in the title, this is a book about the history of tort law that focuses on the first half of the twentieth century, but has no hesitation in straying slightly outside the period where the subject-matter calls for it

Any title containing dates immediately raises questions: why start there?, why stop then? When the answer is not immediately obvious - the start and end of a monarch's reign, say, or a war - there may be little consolation in the reader's discovering that the contents of such books almost always break their titles' implicit promises to confine themselves to events between certain dates. So it might be as well to come clean right at the very start, and admit that nothing special or symbolic happened in either 1900 or 1950 that will serve as the beginning and end points of this book. Indeed, in a discipline like law where so much turns on interpreting what has happened in the past, a pedantically strict attitude to start dates is always likely to create more problems than it solves. As readers may have guessed from the suspiciously round numbers in the title, this is a book about the history of tort law that focuses on the first half of the twentieth century, but has no hesitation in straying slightly outside the period where the subject-matter calls for it.

The publication of Scholars of Tort Law marks the beginning of a long overdue rebalancing of private law scholarship. Instead of concentrating on judicial decisions and academic commentary only for what that commentary says about judicial decisions, the book explores the contributions of scholars of tort law in their own right. The work of a selection of leading scholars of tort law from across the common law world, ranging from Thomas Cooley (1824–1898) to Patrick Atiyah (1931–2018), is addressed by eminent current scholars in the field. The focus of the contributions is on the nature of the work produced by each of the scholars in question, important influences on their work, and the influence which that work in turn had on thinking about tort law. The process of subjecting tort law scholarship to sustained analysis provides new insights into the intellectual development of tort law and reveals the important role played by scholars in that development. By focusing on the work of influential tort scholars, the book serves to emphasise the importance of legal scholarship to the development of the common law more generally.

This volume tells the story of the interaction between Christianity and law-historically and today, in the traditional heartlands of Christianity and around the globe. Sixty new chapters by leading scholars provide authoritative and accessible accounts of foundational Christian teachings on law and legal thought over the past two millennia; the current interaction and contestation of law and Christianity on all continents; how Christianity shaped and was shaped by core public, private, penal, and procedural laws; various old and new forms of Christian canon law, natural law theory, and religious freedom norms; Christian teachings on fundamental principles of law and legal order; and Christian contributions to controversial legal issues. Together, the chapters make clear that Christianity and law have had a perennial and permanent influence on each other over time and across cultures, albeit with varying levels of intensity and effectiveness. This volume defines "Christianity" broadly to include Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions and various denominations and schools of thought within them. It draws on Christian ideas and institutions, norms and practices, texts and titans to tell the story of Christianity's engagement with the world of law over the past two millennia. The volume also defines "law" broadly as the normative order of justice, power, and freedom. The chapters address natural laws of conscience, reason, and the Bible and positive laws enacted by states, churches, and voluntary associations. Several chapters focus on Christian engagement with specific types of law: canon law, family law, education law, constitutional law, criminal law, procedural law, and laws governing labor, tax, contracts, torts, property, and beyond. Other chapters take up cutting edge legal issues of racial justice, environmental care, migration, euthanasia, and (bio)technology as well as fundamental legal principles of liberty, dignity, equality, justice, equity, judgment, and solidarity.

Fully revised and updated, this classic text provides the authoritative introduction to the history of the English common law. The book traces the development of the principal features of English legal institutions and doctrines from Anglo-Saxon times to the present and, combined with Baker and Milsom's Sources of Legal History, offers invaluable insights into the development of the common law of persons, obligations, and property, and also of criminal and public law. It is an essential reference point for all lawyers, historians and students seeking to understand the evolution of English law over a millennium. The book provides an introduction to the main characteristics, institutions, and doctrines of English law over the longer term - particularly the evolution of the common law before the extensive statutory changes and regulatory regimes of the last two centuries. It explores how legal change was brought about in the common law and how judges and lawyers managed to square evolution with respect for inherited wisdom.

This book is the first in a series of essay collections on defences in private law. It addresses defences to liability arising in tort. The essays range from those adopting a primarily doctrinal approach to others that examine the law from a more theoretical or historical perspective. Some essays focus on individual defences, while some are concerned with the links between defences, or with how defences relate to the structure of tort law as a whole. A number of the essays also draw upon concepts and literature that have been developed mainly in relation to the criminal law, and consider their application to tort law. The essays make several original contributions to this complex, important but neglected field of academic enquiry.