- British Legal History: From Magna Carta to Colonial Conquest

Catalog description

An exploration of the history of English Common Law. Begins with a close investigation of the early history of Common Law, focusing on such issues as the origins of the jury trial, the legacy of the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, and the structures of the early English legal system, including primary source readings from trial law and important cases in British legal history. Continues with an exploration of the impact of the Common Law throughout the British Empire, which proved to be a contested space in which English legal traditions were faced with indigenous customs. Investigates the hybrid legal structures that were born of this legal cross-fertilization and the lasting legal legacies of Britain's imperial history both within colonized communities and Britain itself.