<p>The editors of this collection of essays celebrating the widespread intellectual influence of Professor Paul Brand on the academic community have drawn together household names in legal history circles from both sides of the Atlantic to provide an illuminating and insightful series of vignettes on topics or themes that the honourand himself has explored or inspired. Indeed, it is testament to his learning and academic generosity that almost all the contributors owe him a debt for references or helpful comments (in relation to the present volume and their previous work) to the extent that, as David Carpenter remarks “Paul Brand…almost seems a primary source in himself” (129). Chronologically the substantive papers range essentially from the twelfth century through to the sixteenth; the impact of medieval texts on later generations and the importance of archival sources for present day and future scholars are discussed respectively in the two final papers by Sarah Tullis and Robert Palmer.</p>
<p>The focus of the volume is predominantly on the Common Law and the English legal system, reflecting Brand's expert knowledge and interpretation of medieval law and legal practice, and it would have been easy to locate the essays purely within this comfortable domain. One of the key strengths of this book, however, is that many of the contributions range more broadly, examining overlaps between other legal traditions and jurisdictions. Several examine the friction and fictions arising from attempts to draw jurisdictional boundaries between church and state. Points of overlap between royal and ecclesiastical jurisdictions and perceptions of criminal behaviour are explored in papers by John Hudson, Henry Summerson and David Carpenter, which themselves testify to the broad perspective needed for interpreting and understanding legal history. Hudson sheds new light on the constitutional battle between Henry II and Archbishop Thomas Becket over criminal clerks in his re-examination of clause 3 of the Constitutions of Clarendon and the relationship between royal and church courts, royal and other secular courts and the role of the chief justiciar. Summerson's study of the law and crime of arson, illustrated with a wealth of detail from the plea rolls, concludes that the relatively few incidences of charges brought for deliberate fires points towards the successful deterrence provided by legal, social, psychological and religious inhibitions. In Carpenter's study of the legal...</p>
