The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from the Nor

Hudson examines the emergence of common law from the interactions of various elements.   He explores the role and functioning of law in society:  how people used it for their own purposes, and how it was in turn used to control them.  Throughout he is able to illustrate and animate these themes by detailed discussion of particular cases, some dramatic, some gruesome.  The result is not only to maintain the human interest of a subject which can too easily become aridly technical:  it also throws a vivid light on the lives and concerns of the men and women of Anglo-Norman England.  This book has a copyright of 1996.