Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System [Hardcover]

Norman F. Cantor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

At a time when the role of the legal profession, the jury system and other key aspects of American law are under much dispute, Imagining the Law provides a historical perspective on these critical public issues. Historian Norman Cantor explains how and why common law developed out of Roman law, in response to the needs and assumptions of English society and culture from 1000 to 1780, and how it became the basis of the American legal system.

Professor Cantor shows that many of the current debates about the jury trial, the adversarial model and other parts of our legal system stem from this history. He highlights the minds and personalities of prominent judicial leaders, from Cicero and Justinian in the ancient world, through Glanville and Bracton in the Middle Ages, to Coke, Blackstone and Bentham in later centuries. A concluding chapter relates the social and cultural history of common law to the American system of Supreme Court Justices John Marshall and Oliver Wendell Holmes and to the legal profession in the United States today.

Imagining the Law is authoritatively based on the extensive amount of recent research and writing in the field of legal history, and on Professor Cantor's reading of thousands of court cases. It is the first book to examine legal history in a cultural and sociological context and thus illuminates one of our most important institutions in a whole new way.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Common law can be defined as legal processes necessary for the general welfare. Relying on extensive historical, sociological, and cultural analysis, Cantor (history and sociology, New York Univ.) discusses how English common law formed the foundation of the American legal system. He explains that common law was central to the British landed classes' way of life in the early and late Middle Ages and notes that many of those principles remain in the current legal structures of countries living under English common law, especially Britain and the United States. Cantor compares the strengths and weaknesses of common law and Roman law, which is dominant in continental Europe. His thoughtful, careful overview of the main issues of common law will appeal to educated lay readers and beginning law students.?Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A well-researched but deliberately conversational look at the ``social, political, and cultural factors'' behind the origins and development of common law. In his approach to legal history, Cantor (Medieval Lives, 1994, etc.) draws on an idea from sociology: A developing system reaches a point at which ``compelling ideas and social structures attain a centrality of power that is expressed in a deep structure.'' He says that our legal system's deep structure emerged during the 12th century and was largely in place by the time of Henry VIII. One notable feature of that development was the jury of verdict; some early defendants agreed to it only because of judges' trickery or pressure--occasionally literal (stones were piled on the defendant's chest until he died or accepted the jury trial). Another feature was that the gentry shaped and exploited common law to serve their interests, particularly their interest in land. On the other hand, courts became willing to consider oral contracts and personal actions, such as liability--a change that eventually put legal remedy into the hands of the lower classes. Cantor's narrative is most engaging when he focuses on people, whether as social classes or individuals (e.g., his portrait of eminent lawyer Sir Edward Coke scrapping with King James I). At times, Cantor indulges in moments not so much of controversy as of baiting, as when discussing how 19th-century courts relaxed liability standards and took the heat off industrialists whose machines could mangle and kill workers. But hey, says Cantor, Germany and Japan, which industrialized with less brutal side effects, started terrible wars. That he conceives of no third possibility suggests at least a failure of imagination. Whether or not one agrees with Cantor's take on specifics, he persuasively argues that common law's roots are so deeply embedded in our culture that even a new Ice Age might not kill them. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060171944
• ISBN-13: 978-0060171940
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read for many reasons, March 28, 2007

By 

C. Zodrow "cicero2007" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System (Hardcover)

Excellent writing from Cantor (as usual). Incisive, informative and even life changing. Why? If you have ever wondered why our culture behaves as it does, this book may give you some clues. It is a book that gets at the very core of our social foundations and explains in many ways who we are as Americans, descendants of the Brits, brothers in the Common Law system.
One you will want to read and, read again. Get a copy. I purchased a library cast off (good grief!) in hardback for 3.00. A gem. Law students: do not miss this one. You will have one up on your class mates.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great examination of English & American common law, July 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System (Paperback)

This is one of those rare history books that doesn't read like one. And given the subject matter that is a great accomplishment. This book gives both a broad survey of Anglo-American jurisprudence and insightful comparisons with the Roman law traditions of the rest of Europe. And without being partisan it highlights the good and bad aspects of America's legal tradition. I have a background in the subject, yet enjoyed this book as much as the other reviewers.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read!, May 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System (Hardcover)

A fascinating introduction to what I once considered a dull subject. Cantor presents an engaging and sometimes humorous look at the social, economic, cultural and religious background to English common law. I hope the paperback version includes a glossary and chronology.