Editorial Committee of the Cambridge Law Journal
Jurisprudence and Legal Essays by Frederick PollockReview by: F. Pollock and Geoffrey WilsonThe Cambridge Law Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Nov., 1962), pp. 256-258Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Editorial Committee of the Cambridge LawJournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4504815 .
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256 The Cambridge Law Journal [1962]
remains a far cry from the system of bot and wer to that depicted by Glanvill.
The third chapter, on the Criminal and Intention, displays the breadth of Professor Plucknett's learning and for most lawyers it will be their first introduction to the penitential system. It is, however, only an introduction, for the author returns to more familiar fields when he emphasises again the inscrutability of the criminal jury as an inheritance from the ordeal. The story of the abandonment of the ordeal after the fourth Lateran Council in
1215, of the writ of 1219 and the improvisation which followed is one which the author has rightly stressed before in his Concise
History and elsewhere, but it bears retelling in this lecture. So too does the story of the isolation of English law at the end of the thirteenth century which concludes the fourth and final chapter. One can sense Professor Plucknett ruefully contemplating the way- wardness of English lawyers then as now.
The book is a short one; but it has to be read carefully, for the author is an expert at packing a wealth of meaning into a pithy sentence and a well-turned phrase may distract from an important point. To take a single example: in Chapter III the discussion of the ordeal contains an interpretation of the word " law " in the Assize of Clarendon (p. 70) which is rather different from that
put forward in the Concise History (cf. pp. 113, 116), but almost before one realises this, the author has passed to the concluding provision of the Assize and its mention of the "
King's pleasure," and one's attention is switched to the famous passage in the Digest,
quod principi placuit, and thence to our present-day parliamentary formula " La Reyne le Veult." One only wishes that Professor
Plucknett would greatly expand these studies on one of the most
obscure parts in the history of our law.
M. J. Pkichard.
256 The Cambridge Law Journal [1962]
remains a far cry from the system of bot and wer to that depicted by Glanvill.
The third chapter, on the Criminal and Intention, displays the breadth of Professor Plucknett's learning and for most lawyers it will be their first introduction to the penitential system. It is, however, only an introduction, for the author returns to more familiar fields when he emphasises again the inscrutability of the criminal jury as an inheritance from the ordeal. The story of the abandonment of the ordeal after the fourth Lateran Council in
1215, of the writ of 1219 and the improvisation which followed is one which the author has rightly stressed before in his Concise
History and elsewhere, but it bears retelling in this lecture. So too does the story of the isolation of English law at the end of the thirteenth century which concludes the fourth and final chapter. One can sense Professor Plucknett ruefully contemplating the way- wardness of English lawyers then as now.
The book is a short one; but it has to be read carefully, for the author is an expert at packing a wealth of meaning into a pithy sentence and a well-turned phrase may distract from an important point. To take a single example: in Chapter III the discussion of the ordeal contains an interpretation of the word " law " in the Assize of Clarendon (p. 70) which is rather different from that
put forward in the Concise History (cf. pp. 113, 116), but almost before one realises this, the author has passed to the concluding provision of the Assize and its mention of the "
King's pleasure," and one's attention is switched to the famous passage in the Digest,
quod principi placuit, and thence to our present-day parliamentary formula " La Reyne le Veult." One only wishes that Professor
Plucknett would greatly expand these studies on one of the most
obscure parts in the history of our law.
M. J. Pkichard.
Jurisprudence and Legal Essays. By Sir Frederick Pollock, Bt.; selected and introduced by A. L. Goodhart. [London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.; New York: St. Martin's Press. 1961. xlviii and 244 pp. 25s. net.]
To whose generation does Pollock belong ? " Sir H. Maine tells me that he duly received your paper and
was much interested by it, but, being much exercised by the affairs of India and the two Universities, has not yet been able to acknow-
ledge it as he would like " (Pollock to Holmes, November 26, 1878);
" Do not fail to tell old Dicey that I still live and think of him "
(Holmes to Pollock, February 23, 1890); and stuck into the flyleaf of Buckland's copy of Pollock's Essays on Jurisprudence and Ethics,
Jurisprudence and Legal Essays. By Sir Frederick Pollock, Bt.; selected and introduced by A. L. Goodhart. [London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.; New York: St. Martin's Press. 1961. xlviii and 244 pp. 25s. net.]
To whose generation does Pollock belong ? " Sir H. Maine tells me that he duly received your paper and
was much interested by it, but, being much exercised by the affairs of India and the two Universities, has not yet been able to acknow-
ledge it as he would like " (Pollock to Holmes, November 26, 1878);
" Do not fail to tell old Dicey that I still live and think of him "
(Holmes to Pollock, February 23, 1890); and stuck into the flyleaf of Buckland's copy of Pollock's Essays on Jurisprudence and Ethics,
This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:25:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:25:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:25:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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