A New Miscellany At Law

Should horses in Charleston be required to wear diapers? Does the hotchpot rule apply when dividing a testator's 17 residuary elephants? Which verse in the Old Testament was the life-saving 'neck' verse? May sexual intercourse be conducted on a without prejudice basis? These questions and many others like them are raised but not always fully answered in A New Miscellany-at-Law. This follows the same style as its two predecessors but consists of entirely new material, some of it suggested by the readers of the first two volumes. Like them, it collects accounts of strange and remarkable cases, striking court-room exchanges, wise and witty utterances from the Bench, and much else that illumines the law. For the common law world its reach is global, with many riches from the USA; and Scotland is not forgotten. Although the book is primarily for lawyers, a glossary and explanatory footnotes enable non-lawyers to share in the humour. Some may read the book from cover to cover; but for most there will be the pleasures of browsing, often surprisingly prolonged. A New Miscellany-at-Law also includes many other jewels. There is the touching Conveyancer's Ode to His Beloved, the court's refusal to consider whether bees should be classified as invitees, licensees or trespassers, a deplorable account of a wife being part-exchanged for a Newfoundland dog, the future Lord Denning's reference to a wife who was actually committing adultery while denying it in the witness box, and 'fustum funnidos tantaraboo' in Chancery.

The Miscellany was first published 50 years ago and has become a classic and required reading for anyone interested in the law.

‘Miscellany-at-Law was first published in 1955. It sought to include not only wise and witty sayings ofthe judges but also curiosities of lawyers and the law.....The preface of Miscellany-at-Law included a frank confession of my ignorance of much that ought to have been included, particularly from overseas jurisdictions: and I uttered a gentle prayer that those who know better would lighten my darkness, the bounteous response was surprising as it was pleasant. With this rich harvest coupled with material for which I had found no convenient home in the book and the fruits of further researches and accidental discoveries of my own, there was enough matter ....for this further volume.’Sir Robert Megarry

"Should horses in Charleston be required to wear diapers? Does the hotchpot rule apply when dividing a testator's 17 residuary elephants? Which verse in the Old Testament was the life-saving 'neck' verse? May sexual intercourse be conducted on a without prejudice basis? These questions and many others like them are raised but not always fully answered in A New Miscellany-at-Law. This follows the same style as its two predecessors but consists of entirely new material, some of it suggested by the readers of the first two volumes. Like them, it collects accounts of strange and remarkable cases, striking court-room exchanges, wise and witty utterances from the Bench, and much else that illumines the law. For the common law world its reach is global, with many riches from the USA; and Scotland is not forgotten. Although the book is primarily for lawyers, a glossary and explanatory footnotes enable non-lawyers to share in the humour. Some may read the book from cover to cover; but for most there will be the pleasures of browsing, often surprisingly prolonged. A New Miscellany-at-Law also includes many other jewels. There is the touching Conveyancer's Ode to His Beloved, the court's refusal to consider whether bees should be classified as invitees, licensees or trespassers, a deplorable account of a wife being part-exchanged for a Newfoundland dog, the future Lord Denning's reference to a wife who was actually committing adultery while denying it in the witness box, and 'fustum funnidos tantaraboo' in Chancery."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Throughout English history the rule of law and the preservation of liberty have been inseparable, and both are intrinsic to England's constitution. This accessible and entertaining history traces the growth of the law from its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It shows how the law evolved from a means of ensuring order and limiting feuds to become a supremely sophisticated dispenser of justice and the primary guardian of civil liberties. This development owed much to the English kings and their judiciary, who, in the twelfth century, forged a unified system of law - predating that of any other European country - from almost wholly Anglo-Saxon elements. Yet by the seventeenth century this royal offspring - Oedipus Lex it could be called - was capable of regicide. Since then the law has had a somewhat fractious relationship with that institution upon which the regal mantle of supreme power descended, Parliament. This book tells the story of the common law not merely by describing major developments but by concentrating on prominent personalities and decisive cases relating to the constitution, criminal jurisprudence, and civil liberties. It investigates the great constitutional conflicts, the rise of advocacy, and curious and important cases relating to slavery, insanity, obscenity, cannibalism, the death penalty, and miscarriages of justice. The book concludes by examining the extension of the law into the prosecution of war criminals and protection of universal human rights and the threats posed by over-reaction to national emergencies and terrorism. Devoid of jargon and replete with good stories, Law, Liberty and the Constitution represents a new approach to the telling of legal history and will be of interest to anyone wishing to know more about the common law - the spinal cord of the English body politic. Harry Potter is a former fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and a practising barrister specialising in criminal defence. He has authored books on the death penalty and Scottish history and wrote and presented an award-winning series on the history of the common law for the BBC.