The Creation of the Common Law: The Medieval Year Books Deciphered

2015. ISBN-13: 9781616195045. ISBN-10: 1616195045. Lund, Thomas. The Creation of the Common Law: The Medieval Year Books Deciphered. xx, 371 pp. Clark, New Jersey: Talbot Publishing (an imprint of The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.), 2015. ISBN-13: 9781616195045. ISBN-10: 1616195045. Hardcover. New. $75. * In this modern compilation and commentary, the most important medieval cases are paraphrased and analyzed, making this interesting and entertaining litigation accessible to everyone. Although Maitland's classic History of English Law ends at Henry III's death, until now no one has explained in clear modern language the transformative events that followed. After Edward I became king, Chief Justice Bereford took charge of the legal system, and created law in accord with his own sense of justice. The book puts his innovations into the context of contemporary American and English law. "It is a staple of popular fiction - The Da Vinci Code is a prominent recent example - for a scholar, after inspired and painstaking work, to reveal hidden mysteries encoded in ancient manuscripts that alter our understanding of ourselves and our civilization. Remarkably, the legal scholar Thomas Lund, has, in real life, done just that. Here, after hundreds of years, is a readable, brilliant, and deep study of the sources of the basic principles of the Anglo-American Legal System still in use today - the medieval Year Books - until now utterly inaccessible except to a few specialists in the most arcane legal history. This amazing and delightful book will be of profound interest to anyone who has ever believed that the rule of law is about more than the arbitrary machinations of politicians. Simply stated, Thomas Lund has given us one of the most important works on law in this generation." Stephen B. Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law, co-author of Law and Jurisprudence in American History (8th ed. 2013) Thomas Lund, a Professor at the S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, was educated at Horace Mann School, Harvard College, and Columbia Law School. His book American Wildlife Law was published in 1980. An Environmental Affairs review described Lund as "probably the leading authority on the history of wildlife law." Lund has written about medieval law for many years.