Images and Cultures of Law in Early Modern England: Justice and Political Power, 1558-1660

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Cambridge University Press, 2004 M04 29 - 289 pages
Examining aspects of law, history, art, drama and literature, this study represents an original interpretation of a hidden culture: the arcane world of the early modern legal community, and its attempts to restrict governmental power during the period 1558 to 1660. Based at the Inns of Court in London, the legal profession regulated every aspect of its members' lives--dress, consumption, education, worship, entertainment, and even their dwellings--to represent the order of an ideal commonwealth, which it offered as a model for the government of the English State.
 

Contents

bodies of law myth and honour
43
dreamland drunkenness
84
dramatic symbols of crown common
124
the English state
157
Common lawyers fundamental law and the idolatrous mask
190
lex ius and de facto government
227
Conclusion
263
Index
285
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About the author (2004)

Paul Raffield is Tutor in Constitutional Law and a guest lecturer in legal history, law and literature, Birkbeck College, University of London.

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