'What makes Law Effective?', Times Higher Education Supplement, April 2005

There is a great deal about legal process in other parts of this web-site. In particular, all of the materials under the Earls Colne database includes detailed accounts of how the courts worked and very extensive transcripts of legal records of all types.

The workings of the criminal courts in seventeenth century England are described in the book THE JUSTICE AND THE MARE'S ALE.

There are also other materials under the heading of 'witchcraft', where the workings of the courts in relation to this particular crime are analysed in detailed.

The broader philosophy of law, law in its wider context, and the differences over time and space are considered in the 'Encounters' with figures such as Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Sir Henry Maine, and F.W.Maitland, all of whom I have written about at length and all of whom were legal historians (among other things).

A good deal of work has been undertaken on comparing the British common law tradition to that of other parts of the world. One is the whole world of continental, inquisitorial, Roman law, in particular a project I was engaged in for some years on the records of the Portuguese Inquisition. One small example of this is:

'Inquisition and Anthropology', Temenos, Studies in Comparative Religion, vol.18 (1982)

There is a series of short video interviews on aspects of English legal history under FILMS

Another comparison is with the legal traditions of Japan.

One example of this comparison is:

'Law and custom in Japan: some comparative reflections', Continuity and Change, 10 (3), (1995)

Two articles reviewing others work in this field are:

'Early English Assize Records', American Journal of Legal History, vol.xxiv (1980)

'Crime and the Courts in England 1660-1800', London Review of Books, vol.8, no.13 (1986)