Out of Print
Publishing History
Sir William Holdsworth's monumental legal history extends from Anglo-Saxon times to the nineteenth-century Judicature Acts.
It was interrupted by his death in 1945, when he had reached Volume 12. Subsequent volumes have been edited by Professor A. L. Goodhart and H. G. Hanbury, at first from Holdsworth's type script and later, with more difficulty, from his manuscript notes.
The entire history has now been reprinted and is available in a uniform edition of bound volumes, details of which can be obtained on application. There has been a strong demand however for separate publication of Volume I, particularly from students, and its masterly history of its English judicial system is therefore being made available in paperback.
Volume I differs from its successors in that it stands by itself and provides a self-contained account of a single subject, the history of our judicial system ; as such it has been invaluable to students. Much correction and supplementation has been required since the author's death, and this has been provided—partly in the form of corrections made by the editors, and largely in the additions made by Professor S. B. Chrimes, who provides a long introductory essay covering the recent additions to our knowledge of this vital part of legal history. Lists of Cases and Statutes have also been revised.