The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the 12th Century: Volume 1

This volume, the first of two comprising The Making of English Law, provides a full-length account of the Old English law-codes.

It is designed to be both an authoritative work of reference for scholars seeking enlightenment on particular legal manuscripts or texts and a coherent account of how the corpus of Old English law from the 7th to the 12th century came to subsist and survive.

Part I opens with an account of the historians of early English law, including F.W. Maitland (1850-1906) and Felix Liebermann, author of the definitive edition of the law codes (1898-1916). It then provides a detailed examination of English law and legislation on the European continent in the post-Roman era and of the earliest Anglo-Saxon legislators in the 7th century.

This sets the scene for the law making of King Alfred and his successors. As well as providing an authoritative account of Anglo-Saxon legislation, this book opens new perspectives on the emergence of the English State.;It should be welcomed as a landmark in the study of English law and government, and as an exploration of the problem of authority in a pre-modern society.