"A London barrister of 1540, quick-frozen and revived in New York today, would only need a year’s brush-up course at NYU School of Law to begin civil practice in a midtown or Wall Street corporate-law firm."
            --  Norman F. Cantor, Imagining the Law (1997), p. 192.
How could this be true?  What can you learn from the following outline that might help you answer this question?
 

Legend:
British dates are at the left margin
*  Dates from the Continent (or even further afield) are marked with an asterik
          American dates are indented

43 A.D.  Roman troops subdue southeastern England
           www.roman-britain.org/main.htm
           www.britannia.com/history/romantime.html

*  312   Edict of Milan

*  325   Council of Nicea

*  380   Edict of Thessalonica  directed Roman citizens to conform to the Christian orthodoxy proclaimed by the Council of Nicea

c. 410  Departure of last Roman troops from England, followed by chaos, death, destruction, etc.

*  410  Rome sacked by the Visigoths

c. 450  Angles and Saxons, two Germanic tribes, begin to migrate into England
            Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/angsax.asp
            History of the Britons, avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/nenius.asp

*  476  Last Roman Emperor turns out the lights on what's left of the Western Empire

*  529-565  Codification of Roman Law by order of (Eastern) Emperor Justinian (called the “Corpus Juris Civilis” from 17th
            century)
            www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook-law.html and other links

597  St. Augstine of Canterbury, a Christian missionary, arrives in the Kingdom of Kent, eventually converting King Ethelbert some time before 601

* 732  The Franks, led by Charles Martel, stop the Moorish (Muslim) invasion of western Europe at the Battle of Tours

c. 865-1045  Viking invasions and wars
           www.viking.no/e/england/danelaw/index.html

871-899  reign of Alfred the Great, the first monarch to claim the title, "King of the Anglo-Saxons"

1066  William, Duke of Normandy, invades England, defeats the Anglo-Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings (October
           14); Norman troops subdue the rest of England; William installed as King William I (Christmas Day)
           www.essentialnormanconquest.com/ and
           The Statutes of William the Conqueror, avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/lawwill.asp

* 1075-1122  The Papal Revolution (a.k.a. the "Investiture Controversy")
           avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/investm.asp
           see also Berman

1086  Domesday Book compiled, a complete record of British landholdings, including the roughly 1,500 tenants-in-chief who
            held directly of the King
           www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/  and
           www.domesdaybook.co.uk/

* 1088  Law school founded at Bologna, by Irnerius.  Was center of scholarship on the recently rediscovered Justinian's
            Institutes (see 529-565, above).

*  1095-1099  First Crusade

1100  Charter of Liberties of Henry I, foreshadowing Magna Carta (1215)
           www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hcoronation.html

c. 1188  Glanvill (treatise), vi.uh.edu/pages/bob/elhone/glanvill.html

*  1189-1192  Third Crusade (a.k.a. the "Kings' Crusade," involving Richard I ("Lionheart") and other kings as commanders)

1265  Parliament meets for the first time

*  1272  Ninth (and final) Crusade ends

1272-1307  Reign of Edward I (Longshanks, and the Hammer of the Scots; also the "English Justinian," according to Coke)
        www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/ThePlantagenets/EdwardILongshanks.aspx   

1290  Statute Quia Emptores
           avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/land.asp

1295  Model Parliament summoned by Edward I, "generally regarded as the first representative assembly"   
        www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/edward/   

*  1337-1453  The Hundred Years' War
            websites

1341  Commons and Lords meet separately for the first time 
           www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/originsofparliament/birthofparliament/overview/riseofcommons/    
          The Manner of Holding Parliament, a mid-14th century document
          avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/manner.asp

1349-1351  “Black Death”
           www.fidnet.com/~weid/plague.htm

1455-1487  Wars of the Roses
           www.warsoftheroses.com/

1509-1547  Reign of Henry VIII
           www.luminarium.org/renlit/tudor.htm
           and englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/henry8.html

* 1519  Martin Luther’s 95 Theses; beginning of the Reformation
           www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook02.html

1534  Henry VIII takes the Church in England out of the Catholic Church

1536  Henry VIII begins seizure and sale of the monasteries and their property

1547  Henry VIII dies, is succeeded by his young son, Edward VI (who was to reign only 6 years)

1553-1558  Reign of "Bloody" Mary I, who attempts to return England to the Catholic Church

1558-1603, Reign of Elizabeth I, who re-commits England to Protestantism and dies childless, setting the stage for the Stuart dynasty.
           www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm
           and englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/eliz1.html
           and www.elizabethi.org/

1603-1625  Reign of James I (Stuart)
           www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/stuart.htm

1604   The Apology of Parliament, in whcih Parlimaent asserts that it speaks for the entire "state of the realm" and makes the first significant use of the word "rights" in an English politcal/legal document  
          coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst201/ApologySatis.htm

1605  The Gunpowder Plot ("remember, remember the fifth of November")

        1607  Jamestown Colony (Va.) founded.  First English settlement in what is to become the USA.
                  13 Colonies: A Timeline, www.timepage.org/spl/13timeline.html

1610  Parliament lodges the Petition of Grievances with James I

1611  King James Version of the Bible

*  1618-1648  Thirty Years’ War rages on the Continent

        1620  Plymouth Colony (Mass.), avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp

1625-1649  Reign of Charles I, a believer in the "divine right of Kings" = much conflict with Parliament
           www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/stuart_2.htm

1628  Petition of Right lodged by Parliament against Charles I
           odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1601-1650/england/por.htm
           or oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=669&chapter=206109&layout=html&Itemid=27
           or www.historyguide.org/earlymod/petition1628.html
           about Edward Coke  oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=911&chapter=106237&layout=html&Itemid=27

1649  Execution of Charles I
           www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=22
           Charles's defense excerpted at www.royal.gov.uk/pdf/charlesi.pdf
           Charles's death warrant discussed at
            www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/civilwar/collections/deathwarrant/

1649-1660  The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell (d. 1659)
           www.olivercromwell.org/
           www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cromwell_oliver.shtml
           athome.harvard.edu/programs/kishlansky/ (video, maps, timeline)

1651   Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan 
          oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html/
          www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3S1uqgGfB4 

1653  Instrument of Govenrment, the first written constitution in England

1660-1685  Restoration of the monarchy, reign of Charles II
           www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheStuarts/CharlesII.aspx

1685-1688  Reign of James II

1688  Glorious Revolution (Parliament ousts James II, installs William and Mary (James II’s daughter))
           www.thegloriousrevolution.org/               www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheStuarts/MaryIIWilliamIIIandTheActofSettlement/MaryIIWilliamIII.aspx
           recent book by Michael Barone describes the Glorious Rev and links it to the American Revolution;
1689  English Bill of Rights
           avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.asp
1690  John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
           www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtreat.htm or
           oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke2/2nd-contents.html
           -- see especially sections 95-99, press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch4s1.html

1701  Act of Settlement includes in its section III a huge step toward an "independent" judiciary, with judges' tenure defined in terms of good behavior ("quamdiu se bene gesserint") rather than the pleasure of the Monarch -- three paragraphs from the end
           www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/dec/06/monarchy
           australianpolitics.com/democracy/documents/act-of-settlement.shtml

1707  Act of Union merges England and Scotland under one monarch, creates the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1740    David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
           oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=342&Itemid=27

1756-1763  Seven Years' War, including
        1754-1763  French & Indian War in North America

1765-1769  William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England,
        www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/index.html or
        avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/blackstone.asp

        1775  Hostilities commence in the War of Independence

1776    Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
        oll.libertyfund.org/title/197
        www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html

        1776  U.S. Declaration of Independence, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp
        1781  Articles of Confederation, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp
                    and British forces surrender at Yorktown, ending the War of Independence
        1787  U.S. Constitution promulgated, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/usconst.asp
        1787-1788  The Federalist Papers, avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/fed.asp
        1789  U.S. Constitution adopted

*  1789  French Revolution begins in May; the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is proclaimed in August.
          chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/
          and www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook13.html
          and www.victorianweb.org/history/hist7.html
          For the Declaration, go to avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp

1789  Jeremy Bentham, The Principles of Morals and Legislation
           oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=278&Itemid=27
           on Bentham: www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/

1790  Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
          www.bartleby.com/24/3/

*  1793  In France, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette guillotined; "Committee on Public Safety" formed, followed by a "revolutionary government."  The Terror begins in September, and lasts until July 1794.

*  1799  Napoleon a key member of a successful coup in France.  He expands his power steadily, with the logical conclusion reached in December 1804, when he crowns himself Emperor.  Napoleon's strong interest in the civil law and its reform reflected in the Code Napoleon, which goes into force in April 1804.
          www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/c_code.html
          and www.cambaceres.org/vie-poli/code-civ/cod-civi.htm

*  1814-1815  The Congress of Vienna negotiates the treaty ending the Napoleonic Wars, creating a system for the co-existence of European nations that results in a relatively peaceful 19th century on the Continent (the so-called "Concert of Europe").
           www.victorianweb.org/history/forpol/vienna.html

*  1815  Napoleon decisively defeated by the British at Waterloo, in Belgium.

1832  The Representation of the People Act (better known as "The Reform Act") extends voting rights (a bit) and redraws voting districts for the House of Commons.
           www.victorianweb.org/history/reform2.html
           and www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/reftopic.htm

*  1840  Pierre Proudhon, What Is Property?
           etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ProProp.html or
           www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/property/index.htm

*  1848  Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto
           www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
           or www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm  

        1861-1870  U.S. Civil War and the Civil War Amendments (the 13th, 14th, and 15th)

1867   The Second Reform Act

        1870  West Publishing Co. founded; Christopher Columbus Langdell becomes dean of Harvard Law School (serves for 25 years) and publishes the first half of "Cases on the Law of Contracts," the first American casebook (the second half is published in 1871)

1884   The Third Reform Act

        1887  Interstate Commerce Commission created (the first federal administrative agency)

        1890  Sherman Act (the key federal antitrust statute)

1909  The so-called Peoples Budget (the first explicity redisributionist government budget in the English speaking world?)

1911  The Parliament Act  reduces the power of the House of Lords

        1913  Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th President; 16th Amendment (federal income taxation) and 17th Amendment (popular election of U.S. Senators) adopted; Federal Reserve System created

*  1917  Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
           www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/russ/rusrev.html
            and www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook39.html
            and www.casahistoria.net/Russian_Rev.htm

1918   Female suffrage in Great Britain (extended in 1928)

        1920  19th Amendment ratified, guaranteeing female suffrage      

        1929  Stock market crash in October; Great Depression begins thereafter (more or less)

        1932  Franklin Roosevelt defeats incumbent President Herbert Hoover in a landslide

        1933  Roosevelt becomes 32nd President; the "Hundred Days" usher in the New Deal

        1935  Social Security Act; National Labor Relations Act (a.k.a. the "Wagner Act")

        1936-37  The "Court packing" episode ends with Roosevelt losing the battle, but winning the war

*  1948  Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN
           www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml 
           and avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/unrights.asp

        1954  U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education

        1960  Ronald Coase, The Problem of Social Cos
          www.law.uchicago.edu/lawecon/coaseinmemoriam/problemofsocialcost       

        1962  James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent
           www.econlib.org/library/Buchanan/buchCContents.html
           publicchoice.info/TullockTales/index.htm

        1964  Civil Rights Act of 1964; Lyndon Johnson re-elected President

        1965  Medicare and Medicaid created

        1970  Clean Air Act; Environmental Protection Agency established

        1972  Clean Water Act

*  1989  Communism collapses in central and eastern Europe

*  1991  Soviet Union declares bankruptcy, goes out of business

        2010  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

        2012  PPACA declared constitutional, for the most part, by the US Supreme Court on a 5-4 vote

        2015  PPACA survives another constitutional challenge, on a 6-3 vote of the US Supreme Court

**  Additional legal history websites

Legal History Blog, legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/
Legal History on the Web (Duke U.), www.law.duke.edu/legal_history/portal/
The Legal History Project, www.legalhistory.com/index.html  (Blog included)

Robert Palmer, English Legal History Materials (course page; a great resource), vi.uh.edu/pages/bob/elhone/elhmat.html
British Legal History links (Cambridge), www.law.cam.ac.uk/resources_history.php
A.V. Dicey, The Law of the Constitution (1885), oll.libertyfund.org/title/1684
Websites devoted to utilitarianism: www.utilitarian.net/ and www.utilitarianism.com/ and www.laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/cuws/

More legal history resources in section X of faculty.samford.edu/~medebow/web.htm

**  Additional English/British history websites

BBC’s British History in-depth, www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/
BBC's interactive timeline of British history, www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/timelines/british/index.shtml
BBC Radio's This Sceptred Isle – www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/sceptred_isle/

British History, www.britannia.com/history/index.html
Internet Medieval Sourcebook: England, www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1n.html
Lectures in medieval history, www.vlib.us/medieval/lectures/index.html

The Founders' Constitution (1986) press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/
The American Republic: Primary Sources (2002),  oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=669&Itemid=27
A Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents  (U. of Oklahoma) www.law.ou.edu/hist/
Founding.com (Claremont Institute) www.founding.com/
Constitution Society  (includes Cooke edition of The Federalist Papers)  www.constitution.org/
Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics www.constitution.org/liberlib.htm

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law (1881), pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/10253629
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Path of the Law, 10 Harv. L. Rev. 457 (1897), www.gutenberg.org/files/2373/2373-h/2373-h.htm

eHistory at Ohio State University, ehistory.osu.edu/osu/default.cfm

Roman Law Resources -- iuscivile.com/
Q & A on Roman Law -- www.jura.uni-sb.de/Rechtsgeschichte/Ius.Romanum/english.html
The Roman Law Library --  webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/DroitRomain/
Roman Law -- home.kpn.nl/otto.vervaart/roman_law.htm
Roman Law interactive timeline -- global.oup.com/uk/orc/law/roman/borkowski4e/resources/timeline/
Roman Legal Tradition, a journal published by the U. of Glasgow and the Ames Foundation – www.romanlegaltradition.org/
 

Original material Copyright (c) 2007-15 Michael E. DeBow.