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The Politics Of Common Law In Theory And History, Ian Duncanson

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This paper is concerned with the theme of law as an outsider, in theory and practice, and with its appearance as the cohesive force which intervenes to make social order possible. In the first part of the paper I look at two legal theories and at two examples of what I take to be liberal historiography. In the second part I discuss the English common law, and the implications of its close association with agrarian capitalism and City of London finance.