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Author Smith, David Chan, 1976- author.

Title Sir Edward Coke and the reformation of the laws : religion, politics and jurisprudence, 1578-1616 / David Chan Smith.

Publication Info. Cambrdige, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource.
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Series Cambridge Studies in English Legal History
Cambridge studies in English legal history.
Note Based on the author's thesis (doctoral - Harvard University), 2007.
Summary "Throughout his early career, Sir Edward Coke joined many of his contemporaries in his concern about the uncertainty of the common law. Coke attributed this uncertainty to the ignorance and entrepreneurship of practitioners, litigants, and other users of legal power whose actions eroded confidence in the law. Working to limit their behaviours, Coke also simultaneously sought to strengthen royal authority and the Reformation settlement. Yet the tensions in his thought led him into conflict with James I, who had accepted many of the criticisms of the common law. Sir Edward Coke and the Reformation of the Laws reframes the origins of Coke's legal thought within the context of law reform and provides a new interpretation of his early career, the development of his legal thought, and the path from royalism to opposition in the turbulent decades leading up to the English civil wars"-- Provided by publisher.
"'Certainty is the mother of quietness and repose', Sir Edward Coke wrote in the first volume of his Institutes . Over a century later, Lord Mansfield made a similar observation, explaining that 'the great object in every branch of the law ... is certainty'. 1 Sharing this preoccupation, the two chief justices worked to reform English law during periods of discontinuity. But the imperatives for reform under Coke were different from those that drove Mansfi eld: they did not emerge from the decrepitude of the law or its need to adapt to new conditions. Instead, Coke worked within a dynamic and chaotic system. The sixteenth-century fluorescence of English law had driven its transformation and the confessional differences of the Reformation brought new challenges to the practice of the law. 2 This book evaluates the influence of these contexts of legal and religious change on Coke's understanding of the law from 1578 to 1616. His ambition to reform the law explains why Coke simultaneously confronted abuses in royal administration even as he believed he was acting to defend the authority of the monarchy. This book examines this paradox, and in doing so, suggests how otherwise royalist Englishmen reached conclusions that slowly led them into opposition"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Cover; Half-title; Series information; Title page; Copyright information; Table of contents; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1 Uncertainty and the reformation of the laws; 2 'The most dangerous oppressor'; 3 Confidence and corruption; 4 Identity and the narratives of the past; 5 Reason and reform; 6 Pragmatism and the High Commission; 7 Chancery, reform and the limits of cooperation; 8 Delegation and moral kingship; Conclusion; Appendix: Serjeants created between 1577 and 1616 with practices in The Chancery from 1592 to 1615; Index.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Coke, Edward, Sir, 1552-1634 -- Influence.
Coke, Edward, Sir, 1552-1634.
Law reform -- England -- History -- 16th century.
Law reform.
England.
History.
Chronological Term 16th century
Subject Law reform -- England -- History -- 17th century.
Chronological Term 17th century
Subject Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1558-1603.
Great Britain.
Politics and government.
Chronological Term 1558-1603
Subject Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1603-1625.
Chronological Term 1603-1625
1500-1699
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Smith, David Chan, 1976- Sir Edward Coke and the reformation of the laws 9781107069299 (DLC) 2014032034 (OCoLC)882899377
ISBN 9781316150054 (electronic book)
1316150054 (electronic book)
9781107706798 (electronic book)
1107706793 (electronic book)
9781316149799
131614979X
9781107069299
1107069297