Overview

Using a thematic approach to American law and legal history, The Common Law Tradition in America introduces readers to the scholars, judges, and critics who made the law at once a stable source of rules and a dynamic system capable of responding to social and economic changes. Beginning with the common law “at home” in England on the eve of the American Revolution, the book introduces readers to the scholarly Sir William Blackstone, the activist judge Lord Mansfield, and the radical critic Jeremy Bentham. Having established the themes of tradition, innovation, and criticism, the book then examines the challenges that faced the common law in America: written constitutions, a new form of legal education, and the rapidly growing number of statutes. Finally, using selected examples, the book demonstrates the continuing influence of these themes in present American law. As befits “a personal statement,” The Common Law Tradition in America is written in a relaxed style, enlivened with engaging anecdotes. It offers law students, researchers of legal history, practicing lawyers, and the general reader an overview of law and legal development, above the technicalities of law school and practice.

Full Product Details

9781041116226

Table of Contents

Reviews

“John Orth has long been the quintessential legal historian, combining as he does encyclopedic knowledge, an eye for the revealing detail, and a broad, humanistic vision of law. This brilliant personal restatement of the history of the common law in America is a masterpiece. Anyone interested in why and how American law became what it is – novice or expert – should read it.” — H. Jefferson Powell, Duke University School of Law, US. “For centuries, scholars have sought to explain the common law by writing treatises. Professor Orth has taken a divergent path: This is a biography of the greatest idea in western law, told through illuminating stories of its relations with great lawyers, and with other great ideas. It will move — and provoke — both the aged scholar and the new student.” — Ross E. Davies, George Mason University Scalia School of Law, and Editor of ‘The Green Bag’, US. “John Orth seeks nothing less than to restore that sense of wonder, mystery, delight, and, actually, romance, that the best lawyers and judges in America and England have understood for three centuries. This is a book that could only have been written by a master scholar, after decades of reflection, teaching and analysis, which Orth displays with a style and flair that I think is unmatched among American historians of the law. The book is written at a high level but can still be understood by beginning students of law and culture.” — Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History Emeritus, Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law, US.

Author Information

John V. Orth is William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus, University of North Carolina, USA.

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