Review by John V. Orth
For the post-medieval period, the history of law, law courts and justice remains something of a cinderella. . . . However, while one may rightly call with some urgency for more particular studies and general interpretations by historians who understand the law (or those rarer birds still, lawyers who can think historically), a little more life can be reported here, too, than would have been possible twenty-five years ago.
With these words the distinguished historian G.R. Elton introduced the section on law in his 1969 survey of postwar scholarship on British history. Among the score of books and articles on legal history listed by Elton was an article by Robert Stevens, an English barrister capable of thinking historically. That rara avis had written about the genesis of the modern English appellate system in 1876 when the jurisdiction of the House of Lords was reformed. He had shown how the creation of the Court of Appeals by the Judicature Act of 1873 had raised doubts about the need for a second appeal, but that their lordships had managed to maintain their position atop the legal system in compensation for the loss of their political influence. Over the decade and a half since that article appeared, Stevens has extended his studies—going back to include the three quarters of a century before the Appellate Jurisdiction Act of 1876 and going forward to cover the first century of the "new" House of Lords. The result is the first comprehensive history of Great Britain's court of last resort.
About the Author
John V. Orth. Professor of Law, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; A.B. 1969, Oberlin College; J.D. 1974, M.A. 1975, Ph.D. 1977, Harvard University.
Citation
54 Tul. L. Rev. 798 (1980)