Difference between revisions of "History of the Pleas of the Crown"

Revision as of 13:52, 7 June 2013

by Sir Matthew Hale

The Historia placitorum coronae was printed in an edition by Sollom Emlyn in 1736 and was the main authority on English criminal law for a century thereafter (it is occasionally confused with a much sketchier notebook on the subject, published in 1678 as Pleas of the Crown, or, A Methodical Summary of the Principal Matters Relating to that Subject). Stephen believed that the work displayed ‘a depth of thought and comprehensiveness of design which puts it in quite a different category from Coke's Institutes’ (J. F. Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England, 1883, 2.211). According to Gilbert Burnet, Hale started it before the regicide, suspending work during the interregnum; he was certainly still adding new material in the months of illness following his retirement. Like the Historia, the History is a history in the seventeenth-century sense—a comprehensive treatment of its topic, though much of its length is taken up with the story of the law's development. It is notable for a Burkean account of the wisdom of a customary law, and for a temperate defence of the system's continuity across the Norman conquest. The Analysis at its conclusion is a complete taxonomy of matters handled by the common law; it was borrowed by William Blackstone with minimal modification and therefore provides the structure of Blackstone's Commentaries. ^[1]

Bibliographic Information

Author: Sir Matthew Hale, (1609-1676)

Title: Historia Placitorum Coronæ. The History Of The Pleas Of The Crown

Published: London, In the Savoy, Printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling for F. Gyles, 1736.

Edition:

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

References

1. ↑ Alan Cromartie, ‘Hale, Sir Mathew (1609–1676)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 June 2013