Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Smith, David Chan (1976-....)
Titre(s) : Sir Edward Coke and the reformation of the laws [Texte imprimé] : religion, politics and jurisprudence, 1578-1616 / David Chan Smith
Publication : Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2014
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (ix-299 p.) ; 23 cm
Collection : Cambridge studies in English legal history
Lien à la collection : Cambridge studies in English legal history
Note(s) : Notes bibliogr. Index
Texte remanié de : PhD : Harvard University : 2007
"Throughout his early career, Sir Edward Coke joined many of his contemporaries in
his concern about the uncertainty of the common law. Coke attributed this uncertainty
to the ignorance and entrepreneurship of practitioners, litigants, and other users
of legal power whose actions eroded confidence in the law. Working to limit their
behaviours, Coke also simultaneously sought to strengthen royal authority and the
Reformation settlement. Yet the tensions in his thought led him into conflict with
James I, who had accepted many of the criticisms of the common law. Sir Edward Coke
and the Reformation of the Laws reframes the origins of Coke's legal thought within
the context of law reform and provides a new interpretation of his early career, the
development of his legal thought, and the path from royalism to opposition in the
turbulent decades leading up to the English civil wars" ; "'Certainty is the mother
of quietness and repose', Sir Edward Coke wrote in the first volume of his Institutes
. Over a century later, Lord Mansfield made a similar observation, explaining that
'the great object in every branch of the law ... is certainty'. 1 Sharing this preoccupation,
the two chief justices worked to reform English law during periods of discontinuity.
But the imperatives for reform under Coke were different from those that drove Mansfield:
they did not emerge from the decrepitude of the law or its need to adapt to new conditions.
Instead, Coke worked within a dynamic and chaotic system. The sixteenth-century fluorescence
of English law had driven its transformation and the confessional differences of the
Reformation brought new challenges to the practice of the law. 2 This book evaluates
the influence of these contexts of legal and religious change on Coke's understanding
of the law from 1578 to 1616. His ambition to reform the law explains why Coke simultaneously
confronted abuses in royal administration even as he believed he was acting to defend
the authority of the monarchy. This book examines this paradox, and in doing so, suggests
how otherwise royalist Englishmen reached conclusions that slowly led them into opposition"
Sujet(s) : Coke, Edward (1552-1634)
Droit -- Réforme -- Grande-Bretagne -- 16e siècle
Droit -- Réforme -- Grande-Bretagne -- 17e siècle
Politique et gouvernement -- Grande-Bretagne -- 1558-1603
Politique et gouvernement -- Grande-Bretagne -- 1603-1625
Genre ou forme : Biographie
Indice(s) Dewey :
340.309 420903 (23e éd.) = Réforme du droit - Angleterre - 1500-1899 ; 942.060 92 (23e éd.) = Histoire - Angleterre - 1603-1714 - Biographie
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9781107639546 (br.)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb47275395s
Notice n° :
FRBNF47275395
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
Table des matières : Cover; Half-title; Series information; Title page; Copyright information; Table of
contents; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1 Uncertainty and
the reformation of the laws; 2 'The most dangerous oppressor'; 3 Confidence and corruption;
4 Identity and the narratives of the past; 5 Reason and reform; 6 Pragmatism and the
High Commission; 7 Chancery, reform and the limits of cooperation; 8 Delegation and
moral kingship; Conclusion; Appendix: Serjeants created between 1577 and 1616 with
practices in The Chancery from 1592 to 1615; Index.
