History of Common Law and Constitution

Catalog description

Survey of the development of common law and constitution from the earliest Roman and Anglo-Saxon beginnings to the era of the French and American Revolutions. The focus will be on the European social, political and intellectual contexts within which Anglo-American law emerged, and the foundations of legal and constitutional principles. Topics include the origins of courts and the judiciary; the evolution of jury trial and the early history of the law of evidence; conflicts and compromised between secular and ecclesiastical law; rights and limits to property ownership at common law; and problems regarding the legal status of women, children, servants and slaves.