Quotes for All
Thus, at long last, as a visible emblem of unity was daily growing in the new Palace of Justice then being erected in the Strand, half way between the historic site of Westminster the historic centre of the commercial capital of the world, there began to grow up, in the minds of reformers, the vision … Read more
It is true, that a Law of Contract based on causae will always be an arbitrary and inelastic law; but it is a kind of law with which some great nations are satisfied at the present day. Edward Jenks
What is technically called the ‘fungibility’ of money, is its chief value as an article of commerce; and this fact could not long remain recognized, even by such a conservative class as legal officials. Edward Jenks
The common law of chattels, that is to say, the law ultimately adopted by the King’s courts for the regulation of disputes about the ownership and possession of goods, was, to be a substantial extent, a by-product of that new procedure which had been mainly introduced to perfect the feudal scheme of land law. Edward … Read more
The ‘inquests’ which resulted in the compilation of the Domesday Book made a vivid and unfavorable impression on the country. A similar effect was produced by the inquests of 1166 and 1170, before alluded to. Even to this day, the word ‘inquisitorial’ bears the burden of historical unpopularity. Edward Jenks
The invention of writs was really the making of the English Common Law; and the credit of this momentous achievement, which took place chiefly between 1150 and 1250, must be shared between the officials of the royal Chancery, who framed new forms, and the royal judges, who either allowed them or quashed them. Edward Jenks
Legal business has, from the beginning of time, been profitable – to those who have conducted it; because it is concerned with things that touch men’s passions very deeply, and because men are willing to pay, and pay highly, for wisdom and skill in the conduct of it. The real merits of the Norman lawyers … Read more
Whatever else the Norman Conquest may or may not have done, it made the old haphazard state of legal affairs forever impossible. Edward Jenks
But the fact that the word \”chattel\” has survived as the inclusive legal term for all movable goods, points, not merely to the great importance of cattle in primitive times, but to the importance of the notion of sale or barter in generating the institution of property. Edward Jenks
The man who has been wounded by a chance arrow must not shoot at sight the first man he happens to meet. Edward Jenks