
jhb16@cam.ac.uk
Downing Professor Emeritus of the Laws of England
K.C., LL.B., Ph.D. (Lond.), M.A., LL.D. (Cantab.), Hon. LL.D. (Chicago), F.B.A.;
Interests
English legal history, especially in the early-modern period: history of the legal profession and the inns of court; legal manuscripts
CV / Biography
Barrister (Inner Temple and Gray's Inn), Honorary Bencher (Inner Temple and Gray's Inn);
- Full bibliography in the Eminent Scholars Archive
Multimedia resources
- Treasures from the Inner Temple Library (Inner Temple 2023)
- John Selden: 'Liberty above all Things' (Temple Church 2022)
- Law in Time of Plague (Inner Temple 2021)
- YouTube Videos from www.reconstitution.org.uk.
- British Academy: Maccabaean lecture in Jurisprudence (November 2009)
Selected publications
Books
Sources of English Legal History: Public Law to 1750, 2024)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-0199546794
Reports from the Notebooks of Edward Coke, vols. I-V (1572-1600), 2022)
English Law Under Two Elizabeths: The Late Tudor Legal World and the Present (The Hamlyn Lectures), 2021)

Publisher:
ISBN:
1108837964
ISBN 13:
9781108837965
An Introduction to English Legal History, 2019) 5th Edition
Publisher:
The Inns of Chancery 1340-1640, 2017)
Publisher:
The Reinvention of Magna Carta 1216-1616, 2017)
Publisher:
Selected Readings and Commentaries on Magna Carta 1400-1604 , 2015)
Publisher:
The Reports of William Dalison 1552-1558 , 2008)
Publisher:
The English Legal Manuscripts of Sir Thomas Phillipps , 2008)
Publisher:
A Catalogue of the Legal Manuscripts of Anthony Taussig (with A. Taussig), 2007)
Publisher:
Reports from the Time of Henry VIII, 2004)
Publisher:
Readings and Moots at the Inns of Court in the Fifteenth Century (with Samuel Thorne), 2000)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9780854231638
The common law tradition : lawyers, books, and the law tradition, 2000)
A Catalogue of English Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library , 1996)
Publisher:
Judicial Records, Law Reports, and the Growth of Case Law (ed), 1989)
Publisher:
English Legal Manuscripts (vol. 2), 1978)
Publisher:
Legal Records and the Historian (ed), 1978)
Publisher:
English Legal Manuscripts (vol. 1), 1975)
Publisher:
Collected Papers on English Legal History, 2013)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
9781107020436
The Men of Court 1440 to 1550: A Prosopograhy of the Inns of Court and Chancery and the Courts of Law, 2012)
Baker and Milsom's Sources of English Legal History, 2010) 2nd Edition
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-0-19-954680-0
An Inner Temple miscellany: papers reprinted from the Inner Temple yearbook, 2004)
The Oxford History of the Laws of England Volume VI, 2003)
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-0-19-825817-9
The Legal Profession and the Common Law: Historical Essays, 2003)
An Introduction to English Legal History, 2002) 4th Edition
Publisher:
ISBN 13:
978-0-40-693053-8
The Law's Two Bodies: Some Evidential Problems in English Legal History, 2001)
Publisher:
ISBN:
0199245185
ISBN 13:
978-0199245185
The Reports of John Caryll (Vols I & II) (ed), 1999)
Monuments of Endlesse Labours : English canonists and their work, 1300-1900, 1997)
John Spelman's Reading on Quo Warranto: Lectures Delivered in Gray's Inn (Lent,1519), 1997)
Publisher:
ISBN:
0 85423 219 2
Reports from the Lost Notebooks of Sir James Dyer (Vol 1 & 2) (ed), 1994)
Publisher:
Manual of Law French, 1990) 2nd Edition
English Legal MSS in the USA (Part II), 1990)
Readings and Moots at the Inns of Court (Vol II) (with Samuel Thorne) (eds), 1990)
Publisher:
The Notebook of Sir John Port (ed), 1986)
Publisher:
ISBN:
085423148X
English Legal MSS in the USA (Part I), 1985)
The Order of Serjeants at Law, 1984)
Publisher:
The Reports of Sir John Spelman (Vols I & II) (ed), 1976)
Publisher:
Articles
'David Yale' (2023) 21 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy 425–43
Citation:
(2023) 21 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy 425–43
Published: Apr 2023
Book Chapters
"[1. The Common Law], [2. Law Reports and Records], 5. Criminal Justice, 9. [The Legal Profession]" in J. Baker and Y. Kasai (ed(s)), An Introduction to Common Law, 2024), pp. 20-43, 44-78, 194-221, 310-329
Pages:
20-43, 44-78, 194-221, 310-329
Published Apr 2024
"Magna Carta" in E. Balogh (ed(s)), Golden Bulls and Chartas: European Medieval Documents of Liberties, 2023), pp. 195-207
Pages:
195-207
Published Apr 2023
"Custom and Usage", Halsbury’s Laws of England 5th edn, 2023), pp. 1-111
Pages:
1-111
Published Apr 2023