THE NEW HOLDSWORTH

Authors

Arthur Lyon Cross, University of Michigan

Abstract

In view of the fact that Pollock and Maitland do not go beyond the time of Edward I and Reeves no further than Elizabeth's reign, Professor Holdsworth, in publishing a revision and extension to the eighteenth century of his well known work, ventures to point out that it is "the first continuous history of English law that has ever been written". And so it is, to the point to which he has carried it thus far. One more volume at least is promised in the near future; while it is to be hoped that subsequent contributions may ultimately appear. "From the period when Pollock and Maitland's history ends", the author states in his preface, "the wealth of variegated material for the history of English law has never been gathered into an ordered whole. On that account the later volumes of the history are somewhat of a pioneer treatise. I can only hope that the result of the book will be to demonstrate firstly, the essential incompleteness of English history in which no account is taken of the legal point of view, and secondly the impossibility of gaining a complete grasp of the principles of English law without a study of their history. These two truths are still to a large extent unrecognized."

Recommended Citation

Arthur L. Cross, THE NEW HOLDSWORTH, 24 Mich. L. Rev. 22 (1925).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol24/iss1/3