Overview

This new account of the influence of Magna Carta on the development of English public law is based largely on unpublished manuscripts. The story was discontinuous. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries the charter was practically a spent force. Late-medieval law lectures gave no hint of its later importance, and even in the 1550s a commentary on Magna Carta by William Fleetwood was still cast in the late-medieval mould. Constitutional issues rarely surfaced in the courts. But a new impetus was given to chapter 29 in 1581 by the 'Puritan' barrister Robert Snagge, and by the speeches and tracts of his colleagues, and by 1587 it was being exploited by lawyers in a variety of contexts. Edward Coke seized on the new learning at once. He made extensive claims for chapter 29 while at the bar, linking it with habeas corpus, and then as a judge (1606–16) he deployed it with effect in challenging encroachments on the common law. The book ends in 1616 with the lectures of Francis Ashley, summarising the new learning, and (a few weeks later) Coke's dismissal for defending too vigorously the liberty of the subject under the common law.

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9781316637579

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'Baker's comprehensive and reflective study makes an impressive contribution to our understanding of Magna Carta in the medieval and early modern world.' Sean McGlynn, Journal of British Studies 'Baker's comprehensive and reflective study makes an impressive contribution to our understanding of Magna Carta in the medieval and early modern world.' Sean McGlynn, Journal of British Studies

Author Information

Sir John Baker taught at the University of Cambridge from 1971 to 2011, latterly as Downing Professor of the Laws of England. He also served for thirty years as Literary Director of the Selden Society and was knighted for services to legal history in 2003. He is the author of Collected Papers on English Legal History (Cambridge, 2013) and Introduction to English Legal History (4th edition, 2002).

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