Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Legal Culture in the Eighteenth CenturyWhat happened to the culture of common law and English barristers in the long eighteenth century? In this wide-ranging sequel to Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar, 1680-1730, David Lemmings not only anatomizes the barristers and their world; he also explores the popular reputation and self-image of the law and lawyers in the context of declining popular participation in litigation, increased parliamentary legislation, and the growth of the imperial state. He shows how the bar survived and prospered in a century of low recruitment and declining work, but failed to fulfil the expectations of an age of Enlightenment and Reform. By contrast with the important role played by the common law, and lawyers, in seventeenth-century England and in colonial America, it appears that the culture and services of the barristers became marginalized as the courts concentrated on elite clients, and parliament became the primary point of contact between government and population. In his conclusion the author suggests that the failure of the bar and the judiciary to follow Blackstones mid-century recommendations for reforming legal culture and delivering the Englishmans birthrights significantly assisted the growth of parliamentary absolutism in government. |
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Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Legal Culture in the ... David Lemmings Limited preview - 2000 |
Professors of the Law:Barristers and English Legal Culture in the Eighteenth ... David Lemmings No preview available - 2000 |
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2nd edn American appeared appointed assizes attorneys became bencher Bentham Blackstone Brooks called Cambridge career cent Number central courts chambers chap circuit clients Colonial common law Common Pleas counsel Court of Chancery Crown culture defence Dudley Ryder early eighteenth century Eldon elite English Law equity Exchequer fees Foss Gentlemen and Barristers Georgian Hardwicke Harrowby MSS Henry House of Commons ibid inns of court John Judges of England junior Kenyon King's Bench king's counsel Law List law officers lawyers leaders legal education Legal Profession Lemmings Lincoln's Lincoln's Inn litigation London lord chancellor lord chief justice Mansfield Middle Temple Number Per cent OBSP Old Bailey Oxford Oxon Parliament parliamentary political practice Prest PROB professional records reform Richard risters Ryder diary Sandon Hall senior serjeants serjt social Society Study Thomas Treatise trials Westminster Hall William York