Liberty Fund Books

Description

Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) remains one of the most important figures in the history of the common law. The essays collected in this volume provide a broad context for understanding and appreciating the scope of Coke’s achievement: his theory of law, his work as a lawyer and judge, his role in pioneering judicial review, his leadership of the Commons, and his place in the broader culture of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Sir Edward Coke claimed for judges the power to strike down statutes, created the modern common law by reshaping medieval precedents, and, in the House of Commons, led the gathering forces that would ultimately establish a constitutional regime of ordered liberty and responsible, representative government. His Reports and Institutes are fundamental sources of legal doctrine and authority.

Although much has been written on Coke, there has been no single adequate study or collection of these writings until now. Law, Liberty, and Parliament brings together material that not only is useful for understanding Coke’s career and achievement, but also illuminates the late Elizabethan and early Stuart periods in which the common law became inextricably identified with constitutional authority.

Allen D. Boyer, author of Sir Edward Coke and the Elizabethan Age, is a lawyer in New York City and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Boyer serves on the advisory board of the Yale Center for Parliamentary History.

Reviews

This is a rich and stimulating collection of essays. . . .There is no question about the quality of the scholarship or its influence.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews OnLine
January 2005


The central figure animating the discussion in these 15 essays, Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) became one of the most prominent English lawyers of the 1580s and 1590s and went on to serve as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas and later, the King’s Bench during the turbulent reign of King James I. According to Boyle (A New York lawyer serving on the advisory board of the Yale Center for Parliamentary History) Coke’s influence on English common law has been monumental. The essays he presents explore a number of aspects of that influence, including discussions of significant cases he was involved, his judicial philosophy, and his impact on legal theory.

Reference & Research Book News
August 2004

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Editor’s Note xv

Introduction to Coke’s ‘‘Commentary on Littleton’’
THOMAS G. BARNES
I

Writing the Law
RICHARD HELGERSON
26

The Place of Slade’s Case in the History of Contract
A. W. B. SIMPSON
70

Sir Edward Coke and the Interpretation of Lawful Allegiance in
Seventeenth-Century England
DAVID MARTIN JONES
86

Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634): His Theory of ‘‘Artificial Reason’’ as a
Context for Modern Basic Legal Theory
JOHN UNDERWOOD LEWIS
107

Further Reflections on ‘‘Artificial Reason’’
CHARLES M. GRAY
121

Against Common Right and Reason:
The College of Physicians v. Dr. Thomas Bonham
HAROLD J. COOK
127

Bonham’s Case and Judicial Review
THEODORE F. T. PLUCKNETT
150

The ‘‘Economic Liberalism’’ of Sir Edward Coke
BARBARA MALAMENT
186

Sir Edward Coke, Ciceronianus: Classical Rhetoric and
the Common Law Tradition
ALLEN D. BOYER
224

The Common Lawyers and the Chancery: 1616
SIR JOHN BAKER
254

The Crown and the Courts in England, 1603–1625
W. J. JONES
282

The Procedure of the House of Commons Against
Patents and Monopolies, 1621–1624
ELIZABETH READ FOSTER
302

The Origins of the Petition of Right Reconsidered
J. A. GUY
328

Coke’s Note-Books and the Sources of His Reports
SIR JOHN BAKER
357

Index
387