‘Handmaides to the Knowledge of Lawes’: Classical Scholarship and Natural Law as Sources of Legal Theory in the Age of Edward Coke

This thesis proposes that works of classical scholarship and natural law were employed as sources of legal theory by prominent common law jurists in the age of Edward Coke, identified as approximately 1580–1640, where native common law theory and structure were lacking. It examines the ways in which, and extent to which, these works were employed in three main areas: (i) the creation of general theories of law; (ii) the imposition of order and structure on the disparate multitudes of common law principles; and (iii) the provision of theoretical authority for specific principles of law. The substantive content of the thesis is contained within five chapters. Chapter 1 provides a contextual background, and an overview of the categories of legal writing examined for the study. Chapter 2 investigates the use of classical and natural law works as sources for the definition and understanding of law, identified as the first of two sub-divisions within area (i). Chapter 3 discusses the use of these works to formulate theoretical conceptions of law as ‘reason’, identified as the second of two sub-divisions within area (i). Chapter 4 analyses the use of such works as the foundations of methodologies through which to construct logical and coherent theoretical frameworks for the mass of common law principles, identified as area (ii). Finally, Chapter 5 examines the use of classical and natural law works as authorities for specific principles of law, identified as area (iii).

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Acland, Rosalind

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ibbetson, David

• Edward Coke
• Legal History
• Classical Scholarship
• Natural Law
• Ramism
• Early Modern English Legal Theory
• Early Modern Common Law
• Law as Reason
• Latin Legal Maxims
• Humanism in England

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/2dd2c18d-8692-43b6-b8c7-970d90100a6e/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.127516

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/398709