Law Commons^™

Creating A Literature For The King’S Courts In The Later Thirteenth Century: Hengham Magna, Fet Asaver, And Bracton, Thomas J. Mcsweeney

Thomas J. McSweeney

The early common law produced a rich literature. This article examines two of the most popular legal treatises of the second half of the thirteenth century, Hengham Magna and Fet Asaver. It has long been recognized that these two treatises bear some relationship to each other. This article will attempt to establish that relationship, arguing that Hengham Magna and Fet Asaver were written by different people; that Fet Asaver borrows from Hengham Magna; and that the authors of both texts had independent access to the Bracton treatise. The article concludes by suggesting a new way to think about the legal …

Gambling On Our Financial Future: How The Federal Government Fiddles While State Common Law Is A Safer Bet To Prevent Another Financial Collapse, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

An All Of The Above Theory Of Legal Development, Larry A. Dimatteo

Larry A DiMatteo

This paper reviews different theories of legal development in order to highlight their similarities and differences. In the end, as in contract theories, no monist view of legal development possesses the explanatory power needed to understand how law has come to be and where it may take us in the future. What we do have is a foundation built on at least two millennia of legal history. The intellectual starting point for this project is Nathan Isaacs’ unfinished work on a cycle theory of legal development. His view of legal development takes issue with Henry Sumner Maine’s thesis that development …

Past The Pillars Of Hercules: Francis Bacon And The Science Of Rulemaking, Daniel R. Coquillette

Daniel R. Coquillette

The parallels between Francis Bacon’s career and that of Edward H. Cooper are obvious. Bacon was one of the great legal minds of his day and, unlike the common law judges who formed the law by deciding cases, Bacon expressed his greatness in writing brilliant juristic treatises and, as Lord Chancellor, drafting one of the first modern rule systems, the Ordinances in Chancery (1617-1620). My thesis is that Bacon invented modern, scientific rulemaking by fusing his new theories of inductive, empirical research with the traditions of equitable pleading, and is, in fact, the intellectual forebearer of the likes of Charles …

Shaping The Disclosure Tort: A History Of Scholars' Early Importance And Modern Impotence, Jared A. Wilkerson

Jared A. Wilkerson

Legal scholars have rarely encountered an area such as common law privacy, in which they had a guiding hand over the course of seventy-five years (1890–1965). Since then, however, scholars’ attempts to modify Prosser’s disclosure tort have failed. This article chronicles the early and potent scholarly influence from Warren and Brandeis to Hand, Pound, and Prosser. It continues with recent academic attempts to modify the disclosure tort, none of which has affected the narrow cause of action last touched by Prosser in the Restatement (Second). The article shows that, notwithstanding enormous efforts by some of America’s most respected scholars, would-be …