I've been super quiet of late, but I want to call attention to a few recent publications, which I'll do in this and another post or two in a few minutes. Let me start off with a new volume of the Selden Society by Lloyd Bonfield and L.R. Poos.
Lloyd Bonfield and L. R. Poos's Selden Society volume (130), entitled the Reports of Sir Peter King, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1714-1722 (King was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Fleas 1714-1725 and thereafter Lord Chancellor until 1734) has been published and was presented to the Society at its annual general meeting in early July. The volume consists of two parts. The latter is a redaction of three extant King manuscripts (one in the Hill Manuscript collection in Lincoln's Inn, London, another in the Harvard Law Library, and the third in the Lilly Library at Indiana University) and contains reports of 323 cases (262 printed pages) most of which have been hitherto unreported. The manuscripts are particularly interesting because they were passed around amongst lawyers for a hundred or so years after being copied from King's own case notes, and marginal references were added by them in different hands indicating that lawyers referred to the manuscripts and cited the cases in subsequent proceedings as precedent. The first part of the volume is a book length Introduction written by Professor Bonfield in which the provenance of the manuscript, King's biography and a detailed discussion of the substance of the cases are discussed. The marginal citations are analyzed. The publication goes someway in understanding a plethora of issues touching early eighteenth century common law, including the treatment of precedent and statutory interpretation during the period, and the development of commercial and maritime law. There are also a fair number of testamentary cases.
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