Judges, Legislators and Professors

In Judges, legislators and professors one of the world's foremost legal historians shows how and why continental and common law have come to diverge so sharply. Using ten specific examples he investigates the development of European law, not as the manifestation of certain ideological and intellectual trends, but as largely the result of power struggles between the judiciary, the legislators, and legal scholars, each representing certain political and social ambitions. Now available in paperback, Judges, legislators and professors provides an historical introduction to continental law which is readily accessible to readers familiar with the common law tradition and vice-versa.

(Cambridge)

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'In Judges, Legislators and Professors Professor Raoul van Caenegem, a Belgian scholar who for many years has brought his knowledge of European legal history to some of the most intractable problems of early Common Law, sets out many instances where English law stands apart from the mainstream of western legal culture ... van Caenegem sees the distinctions as the result of essentially political developments which have meant that, at the critical moment in a country's legal history when a national law took shape, either judges or legislators or jurists were the dominant forces in that process.' Times Higher Education Supplement

'This book brings fascinating insights into an area of law that has often been written about. His clear and lucid style makes the book a pleasure to read ... definitely recommended to all who are interested in legal history, comparative law or the legal system in general.' Malaya Law Review

(Cambridge)

Part I. The Common Law is Different: Ten Illustrations: 1. The ambiguity of the term 'law'; 2. Appeal: a recent development; 3. English law is a 'seamless web'; 4. The rule of exclusion; 5. A land without a constitution?; 6. The consequences of parliamentary absolutism; 7. The haphazard development of criminal law; 8. Prosecution and verdict in criminal trials; 9. A law uncodified; Jurists are dispensable; Part II. The Mastery of the Law: Judges, Legislators and Professors: 10. Some facts; 11. Explanations: the 'national spirit'?; 12. Explanations: authoritarian Roman law and democratic England?; 13. Explanations: political history; Part III. The Divergent Paths of Common Law and Civil Law: 14. Common law and civil law: the parting of the ways; 15. The ways remain separate; 16. Which diverged from which?; Part VI. Which is Best, Case Law, Statute Law, Or Book Law: 17. The judges: amateurs and professionals; 18. The courts and their creators; 19. Codification: a weapon against the judiciary; 20. Law professors serve the powers that be; 21. Eight criteria of good law.

(Cambridge)