Postgraduate Course: History of English Private Law (LAWS11549)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course provides a broad understanding of the history of English private law over the period from 1066 to today. It focuses on four topics in four time periods: medieval land law; Tudor equity and trusts; early modern contract law; and tort law in the industrial revolution. Existing knowledge of the English legal system is not essential, but some general knowledge of English history is a useful starting point. Some understanding of Roman law is also useful but not essential.The course will involve the use of case law, legislation, and secondary literature in order to understand key developments in these topics. The focus of the course is not deep doctrinal understanding, but an appreciation of the relationship between law and history through the medium of particular legal developments. Students will be encouraged to make comparisons with any existing knowledge they have of later periods or other jurisdictions in order to evaluate as well as describe the law. |
| Course description |
1. Introduction to English legal history
2. Sources of English legal history
3. English land law: medieval origins
4. English land law: feudalism
5. English equity and trusts: what is a trust
6. English equity and trusts: Lord Dacre's case
7. English contract law: consideration
8. English contract law: freedom of contract
9. English tort law: the development of negligence
10. English tort law: the development of nuisance
Please note that classes for this course will be jointly taught with Honours level students. Although students at both levels will study the same course materials, assessments will be graded according to the relevant benchmark appropriate to the level of study.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% coursework «br /»
«br /»
Summative assessment: «br /»
Essay 1 - mid semester, 2,500 words, (30%); «br /»
Essay 2 - end of semester, 3,000 words, (70%) «br /»
«br /»
Formative assessment: formative task in Week 2 on sources of English legal history; a short essay to set expectations for written work and give students practice and brief feedback |
| Feedback |
The first essay will be formative as well as summative. Feedback will be provided to the students after the first essay, which has a much lighter weighting in overall assessment, but also with an element of feed-forward to assist in preparation of the second. The feedback from the first essay will also involve feed forward for the second, thereby helping the students hone their writing skills. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Conduct sophisticated historical and doctrinal analyses of English private law across multiple periods, critically evaluating the evolution of legal concepts and their social, economic, and political contexts.
- Effectively engage with complex legal and historiographical debates, articulating and defend arguments regarding the historical development of English private law.
- Demonstrate mastery of relevant research methodologies, historiographical techniques, and the ability to manage complex research materials.
- Critically evaluate and apply interdisciplinary approaches to the study of English private law, integrating legal history with insights from related disciplines.
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Reading List
Core texts:
John Baker, Introduction to English Legal History (5th edn, OUP 2019)
John Baker (ed), Sources of English Legal History (2nd edn, OUP 2019)
David Ibbetson, A Historical Introduction to the Law of Obligations (OUP 2001)
AWB Simpson, A History of the Common Law of Contract (OUP 1987)
Supplementary texts:
John Baker, 'Why the History of English Law has not been Finished' [2000] CLJ 62 J
H Barton, 'The Medieval Use' (1965) 81 LQR 562
J Bean, The Decline of English Feudalism (MUP 1987)
P Brand, The Making of the Common Law (Hambledon 1992)
P Brand, Earliest English Law Reports (123 Selden Society 1996)
C Fifoot, History and Sources of the Common Law (Stevens 1952)
R Helmholz and Zimmermann, Itinera Fiduciae: Trust and Treuhand in Historical Perspective (Duncker & Humblot 2013)
SFC Milsom, Historical Foundations of the Common Law (2nd edn, Butterworths 2014)
Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law (2nd edn, 1911)
S Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals (OUP 1994)
AWB Simpson, A History of the Land Law (OUP 1986)
AWB Simpson, 'The Rise and Fall of the Legal Treatise: Legal Principles and the Forms of Legal Literature (1981) 48 U Chi L Rev 632 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Knowledge of the history of English private law in four selected periods, including the use of case law and legislation |
| Keywords | English Law,Legal History,Private Law |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Lisa Cowan
Tel:
Email: lcowan2@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hannah Ackroyd
Tel: (0131 6)50 2008
Email: hackroyd@ed.ac.uk |
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