by Professor Gwen Seabourne, University of Bristol Law School In the first half of this academic year, a lot of interest was generated by discussion of newly-discovered documentary evidence relating to the life of medieval English poet and author, Geoffrey Chaucer. This was explored in a special edition of a literary journal, The Chaucer Review. Something new about Chaucer was of great interest to scholars of medieval literature, of course, but the subject-matter of the new evidence also drew in a wider audience, since it dealt with an episode in Chaucer’s life which ..read more

by Joanna McCunn and Andrew Bell, University of Bristol Law School   In June this year, there was a revolution in the English court system. Under the Small Claims Paper Determination Pilot, some claimants seeking £1,000 or less lost the right to an oral hearing of their case. In pilot areas, only small claims involving a ‘significant factual dispute’ or ‘complex’ issues will be allowed their day in open court. If you are bringing a claim in the pilot area for something like a parking ticket, or flight delay compensation, or have another kind of low-value dispute with another person or co ..read more

By Gwen Seabourne, University of Bristol Law School Photo credit: Photo by Zachary Kadolph on Unsplash One of the less enthusiastic endorsements of marriage is to be found in the words of St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: ‘it is better to marry than to burn’. His point was that celibacy was the best way to live, but those too weak to resist the temptations of the flesh could take the second best option of monogamous marriage. Before the Protestant Reformation in England, there were those who followed what this passage portrayed as the higher path, dedicating themselves to a life of ce ..read more

Joanna McCunn, Lecturer, Law School, University of Bristol Have you heard that it’s illegal to die in Parliament? Or to eat mince pies on Christmas Day? Are you a Welshman who’s been nervously avoiding Chester, and do you fret about committing treason by posting a letter with an upside-down stamp? Perhaps you look back with horror on those childhood crime sprees of ringing doorbells and running away…   Articles about ‘funny old laws’ were once a staple of the tabloid silly season, and now run riot across the inter ..read more

By Prof Gwen Seabourne, Professor of Legal History (University of Bristol Law School) Picture: Raglan Castle/Castell Rhaglan, base of William Herbert, by M.J. Seabourne In what now seems like the very far-off pre-lockdown part of 2020, an article of mine was published, the culmination of a project I had been working on for two years or more, and had presented, at different stages in its development, to audiences at the International Medieval Congress in 2017 and the British Legal History Conference in 2019. Judging a Hereford hanging: Agnes Glover v. Walter Devereux, William Herbert and others ..read more

By Dr Chathuni Jayathilaka and Prof Gwen Seabourne, Centre for Law and Historical Research (University of Bristol Law School) Although based in England, the Law School is home to experts on a variety of different jurisdictions – for example, Dr Chathuni Jayathilaka, who teaches contract, commercial comparative and Roman law is a specialist on Scots private law and Scots Legal History. She has recently published a monograph entitled Sale and the Implied Warranty of Soundness and here, she explains it to Gwen Seabourne of the Centre for Law and History Research. GS: So, Chathuni, tell us about y ..read more

By Prof Gwen Seabourne, Professor of Legal History (University of Bristol Law School) Window from St Mary’s church, Ross-on-Wye, Joseph with Jesus. Even for those who enjoy spending their time with historical legal records, plea roll entries relating to medieval land law cases may not be high on a list of interesting areas to investigate. The vocabulary is often off-putting and the records somewhat formulaic and repetitive. Nevertheless, patient digging in these apparently monotonous sources can turn up information on some big, important issues of medieval thought and belief. My recent researc ..read more

By Prof Gwen Seabourne, Professor of Legal History (University of Bristol Law School) In a manslaughter case held in Swansea in 1968,[i] an unusual order was made. Thesiger J. decided that it should be heard by an all-female jury. He made the order under a discretion granted to him by the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, the first, and apparently the only time that such an order was made in Wales or England. The possibility of ordering a single sex jury has long since been removed, but R. v. Sutton was and is important as an event, and as a working-out of the implications of the e ..read more

By Ms Joanna McCunn, Lecturer in Law (University of Bristol Law School). © Folger Shakespeare Library Contractual interpretation continues to be a controversial topic. In a recent speech, Lord Sumption attacked Lord Hoffmann’s judgment in Investors Compensation Scheme [1998] 1 WLR 896, still the leading case in the area. For Lord Hoffmann, the key question was what a reasonable person would understand the parties to have intended by their contract, even if this was something different to the ordinary meaning of the words they had used. Lord Sumption, however, argued that the courts must give p ..read more

By Dr Gwen Seabourne, Reader in Legal History (University of Bristol Law School).* © M.J. Seabourne. Tomb of John de Swinfeld, Hereford Cathedral In 1292, Herefordshire, close to the Welsh border, received a visit from the royal justices, touring England with a view to hearing legal disputes, investigating crimes and making a tidy profit for the king from the various fines imposed upon individuals and communities. Precociously bureaucratic, the machinery of royal government recorded much of what went on before the justices, bequeathing to future generations priceless insights into life and law ..read more