Let Justice Be Done: An Analysis of Early Developments in English Common Law, 1066-1400

Jody Seutter is a Lecturer in the Department of History at La Salle University and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social & Behavioral Science at Bucks County Community College. His research interests include European, American and comparative global legal history. More specifically, his work examines early formalized court procedures and structures as well as their continuing significance.

Introduction:
Chapter 1 - Early Origins of English Common Law:
Introduction:
At the close of the nineteenth-century, a prominent English jurist named Frederic William Maitland founded an organization of legal scholars called the Selden Society. In doing so, Maitland began his first steps toward establishing the modern field of English legal history. Since that time, countless tomes have been published on a wide variety of legal topics and their origins. Obsolescent and obscure legal doctrines such as seisin and disseisin have been discussed ad nauseum. What, then, can one more foray into English legal history yield?
At the outset, it seems important to note what this book is not before delving into what it is. The author has not chosen to take one legal topic and perform intellectual surgery upon it. Rather, this book will delve into a variety of legal topics over a relatively wide swath of time. This is essential to the analysis as many historians have "lost the forest for the trees," as the proverbial saying goes. Instead, this book examines a period of time where little occurred through the lens of what came before. Specifically, the period from approximately 1400 to 1688 has been neglected by many legal historians due to its relative lack of legal development. But this lull begs the question: if one accepts the commonly held conclusion that the concept of "common law" is organic, dynamic, and always changing, why did that body of law cease developing for nearly three centuries?
Exploring this question forms the core of this book. Undoubtedly, the evolution of English law from its Anglo-Saxon and Norman roots into a "common" body of law is one of the most important developments in global legal history. This work reviews those origins and early developments through both formal and informal institutions and structures. Most notably, it is posited that the collective contributions of Henry II, Magna Carta and Edward I, coupled with the rise of Parliament, resulted in a legal construct that persisted largely unchanged for three centuries. What was it about these developments that succeeded when the path forward was all but certain? With so many possible outcomes, it was often sheer force of will that kept English legal traditions independent pressures from the continent.
Chapter, Anglo-Saxon Legal Traditions:
Today, it seems almost impossible that there could be a pre-history in respect to the common law. After all, contemporary English law owes much to its antecedent. In addition, thanks to 300 years of British colonial expansion, common law jurisdictions are found throughout the world in regions as diverse as Australia, the Indian subcontinent and Africa. However, if Britain had not had such success in spreading their influence through the world, this would probably not have been the case. There is a prominent competitor in the guise of "civil law," as the former French province cum state of Louisiana stands as a prominent example. Civil law derives from classical Roman and Justinian law and, with Roman influence over Britain dating back to 43 A.D., could easily have served as the foundation of English law. What, then, was unique about English legal tradition in the first millennium A.D. that resisted this trend?
Roman law was certainly enforced in Roman Britain, if mostly upon citizens of the Empire rather than the local inhabitants. There were reports of Roman courts operating as far north as York as early as 85 A.D., but it does not appear that it had much of an effect upon local customs after the Roman exit in the fifth century. With so many tribes, each with varying customs, it is hardly surprising that they failed to coalesce during this period. Further, written laws simply did not exist amongst the early Britons, and few oral legal traditions were committed to recording during this period. It would not be until the rise of the Anglo-Saxons during the seventh century that, with the innovation of written law, his