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1. Angell, Joseph K., and Samuel Ames. [Lathrop, John, Editor].
Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations Aggregate.
Revised, Corrected and Enlarged. Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
1861. lvi, 810 pp. Reprint available May 2005 by the Lawbook
Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-473-8. Cloth. $175.
* Reprint of the seventh edition. The first American treatise on the
subject, it departed from English models to address the unique
characteristics of the American corporation in the years after 1815,
an era of unprecedented growth that was encouraged by the courts. It
was the standard treatise of its day. In his Legal Bibliography
(1847) Marvin says it was “undoubtedly the best work...an American
lawyer can possess” and notes that “Chancellor Kent highly
recommends the book” (63). The first edition was published in 1832;
the final edition was published in 1882. The seventh edition is
desirable because it summarizes the state of the field before it was
revolutionized by the Civil War economy and the rise of modern
corporate capitalism after 1865.  
2. Austin, John.
Lectures on Jurisprudence or the Philosophy of Positive Law.
Fifth Edition, Revised and Edited by Robert Campbell. London:
John Murray, 1885. Two volumes. Reprint available May 2005 by The
Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-429-0. Cloth. $250.
* Reprint of the fifth edition of Austin’s magnum opus.
Austin [1790-1859] was the founder of English analytical
jurisprudence and the first to subject the law to inductive
analysis. First published in 1861, this work is a landmark in the
development of modern legal thought. Its most important
contributions were the strict delimitation of law and its
distinction from morality, elaboration of the idea of law as a kind
of command and the close examination of such common legal terms as
right, duty, liberty, injury and punishment. The editions edited by
Campbell had a profound influence on Anglo-American jurisprudential
thinking. This is especially true of this edition, which is widely
regarded as the best.
3. Ballentine, James A., Compiler.
A Law Dictionary of Words, Terms, Abbreviations and Phrases Which
are Peculiar to the Law and of Those Which Have a Peculiar Meaning
in the Law. Containing Latin Phrases and Maxims With Their
Translations and a Table of the Names of the Reports and Their
Abbreviations. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, [1916].
[vi], 632 pp. Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange,
Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-490-8. Cloth. $150.
* Reprint of the uncommon first edition. Along with those of Black
and Anderson, Ballentine’s is one of the most important American
dictionaries of the modern era. Containing over 18,000 entries and a
97-page index of American and English law and equity reports, it is
renowned for its concision and accuracy. Immediately popular, it
went through three editions by 1969 and served as the basis of the
College Law Dictionary (First edition, 1931) and the
Self-Pronouncing Law Dictionary (1948). The 1916 edition retains
its value as a handy but thorough one-volume reference.
4. Curtis, George Ticknor.
A Treatise on the Law of Copyright in Books, Dramatic and Musical
Compositions, Letters and Other Manuscripts, Engravings and
Sculpture, as Enacted and Administered in England and America with
some Notices of the History of Literary Property. Boston:
Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1847. xi, 450 pp. Reprint
available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-565-3.
Cloth. $125.
* Reprint of the first edition of the first comprehensive study of
copyright law. A comprehensive and scholarly treatise that considers
the history and theory of the subject, it summarizes all of the
English and American statute enacted since the Act of Queen Anne of
1709-10, the first formal recognition of a law of literary property
separate from the law of censorship. Curtis [1812-1894], an eminent
patent attorney, was renowned for his intellect and literary skill.
He is also the author of the important Constitutional History of
the United States, which is available as a Lawbook Exchange
reprint.
5. Holt, Francis Ludlow. [Bleecker, Anthony, Editor].
The Law of Libel: In Which is Contained a General History of This
Law in the Ancient Codes, and of Its Introduction, and Successive
Alterations, In the Law of England. Comprehending a Digest of All
the Leading Cases Upon Libels, From the Earliest to the Present
Time. First American, From the Second London Edition, With
References to American Cases. New York: Published by Stephen Gould,
1818 xii, [13]-328 pp. Reprint available May 2005 by the Lawbook
Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-513-0. Cloth. $95.
* Reprint of the first American edition. First published in 1812,
this was the standard English treatise on slander and libel in the
opening decades of the nineteenth century. Though it was eventually
superseded, it remained an authoritative history of the subject.
With its intelligent discussion of sources and cases it is just as
valuable today. Holt [1780-1844] was a member of the Inner Temple.
Also the author of treatises on nisi prius, bankruptcy, admiralty
law and Parliament, his work was held in high esteem by Kent.
6. Langbein, John H.
Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance:
England, Germany, France.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. ix, 321 pp.
Illustrations. Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange,
Ltd. LCCN. ISBN 1-58477-577-7. Cloth. $95.
* Our present system of criminal prosecution originated in England
in the sixteenth century. Langbein traces its development, which was
at its most intense during the reign of Queen Mary. He shows how the
common law developed a system of official investigation and
prosecution that incorporated the medieval institution of the jury
trial. He places equal emphasis on the role of the justices of the
peace as public prosecutors. The second half of the book compares
the English system with those of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) and
France. He concludes by refuting the popular opinion that the
English were strongly indebted to continental models. This work was
awarded Cambridge University’s Yorke Prize.
7. Mansfield, Edward D.
The Legal Rights, Liabilities and Duties of Women; With an
Introductory History of Their Legal Condition in the Hebrew, Roman
and Feudal Civil Systems. Including the Law of Marriage and Divorce,
The Social Relations of Husband and Wife, Parent and Child, of
Guardian and Ward, and of Employer and Employed. Salem:
Published by John P. Jewett & Co., 1845. 369 pp. Reprint available
May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-469-X. Cloth. $125.
* Published three years before the Seneca Falls Convention, this lay
guide for women is probably the first ever published in the United
States. It is infused with the spirit of early feminism. As
Mansfield [1801-1880] states in the preface: “Rights, and the
knowledge of rights are no longer hidden from the masses of men; and
why should they be from women?” (6). The book has four parts. The
first is a general history of woman’s legal status from biblical
times to the 1840s. The second is an account of the American woman’s
civil rights. The third reviews the laws of property common to both
genders. The final section reviews the rights, liabilities and
duties of women in domestic relations. Mansfield was a Connecticut
lawyer who later moved to Cincinnati, where he became professor of
constitutional law and history at Cincinnati College.
8. [Penn, William]. [Magna Charta].
The Excellent Priviledge of
Liberty and Property. Being a Reprint and Fac-Simile of the First
American Edition of Magna Charta Printed in 1687 Under the Direction
of William Penn and William Bradford.
Philadelphia: Printed for the Philobiblon Club, 1897. xv, 168, 63
pp. Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-398-7. Cloth. $125.
* Reprint of the 1897 edition, which was limited to 155 copies.
There are only three known copies of the original 1687 edition. A
lavish production, it has decorations by noted illustrator Edward
Stratton Holloway, an introduction by Frederick D. Stone, extensive
notes and a table of dates. It also includes texts of the Magna
Charta, A Confirmation of the Liberties of
England, and of the Forest, Made Anno XXV. Edward I,
The Sentence of the Clergy Against the Breakers of Those Articles,
The Sentence or Curse Given by the Bishops Against the Breakers
of the Great Charter, A Statute Made Anno XXXIV. Edward I.,
Commonly Called De Tallegio non Concedendo, The Comment Upon
the Statute De Tallegio non Concedendo and An Abstract of the
Patent Granted by the King to William Penn and His Heirs and Assigns
for the Province of Pennsylvania and The Frame of the Government of
the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories Thereunto Annexed, in
America.
9. Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames.
A General View of the Criminal Law of
England.
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1863. xii, 499 pp. Reprint
available May 2005 The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. 1-58477-478-9. Cloth.
$95.
* Reprint of the first edition. Stephen [1829-1894] explores English
law exclusive of penal actions, of offences punishable by summary
proceedings before magistrates and of special offences intended as
sanctions for special statutory institutions but including all other
acts commonly known as crimes. In a discussion of a later edition
Holdsworth observed: “it was probably the best modern history of a
particular branch of English law that had yet appeared in England.
It won high praise from Pollock and Maitland.... Though the more
intensive study of the earlier history of our law has rendered some
parts of it obsolete, it is still the best history of the later
stages of the law. And it has another merit which it can never lose.
The fact that its author was a practising lawyer and a judge, gives
to his account of many parts of the law, and especially to his
analysis of famous trials, the reality and vividness which comes of
practical experience.”: The Historians of Anglo-American Law
77-78.
10. Story, Joseph.
Commentaries on the Law of Bills of Exchange, Foreign and Inland,
as Administered in
England and America; with Occasional Illustrations from the
Commercial Law of the Nations of Continental Europe.
Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1843. xxiv, 608 pp.
Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-454-1. Cloth. $125.
* Reprint of the first edition. In The Formative Era of American
Law, Pound refers to the Commentaries on the Laws of Bills of
Exchange as one of the standard texts of the nineteenth century.
As Marvin pointed out in 1847, it was certainly the most complete
and wide ranging text of its day. In addition to American and
English sources Story draws on the work of Heineccius and other
civil-law jurists. Marvin, Legal Bibliography (1847) 673.
Apart from James Kent, no man has had greater influence on American
law than Joseph Story [1779-1845]. He was Dane Professor of Law at
Harvard and an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. His many
books have been cited extensively in America and in Britain, and he
remains an authority today.
11. Taylor, John.
A Summary of the Roman Law, Taken from Dr. Taylor’s Elements of
the Civil Law to which is Prefixed A Dissertation on Obligation.
London: Printed for T. Payne, at the Mews Gate, 1772. lxx, 328, [31]
pp. Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN
1-58477-506-8. Cloth. $95.
* Taylor’s Elements is a landmark in the history of English
reception of Roman law. Later published in 1754, it was originally a
primer on the Roman law and the principles of law in general for the
grandsons of the Earl of Granville, to whom he had been appointed
tutor. Taylor [1704-1766], who was a fellow of St. John’s College,
Cambridge, an advocate of Doctor’s Commons and a member of the Royal
Society, addresses the history of Roman public and private law and
its concepts of law, right, justice, persons, marriage, slavery,
property, the patria potestas and equity. He also considers
natural and international law. Taylor draws on a wide range of
sources. In addition to Justinian, he uses earlier compilations,
other Greek and Latin classical authors and later writers on the
Roman, natural and international law. The anonymous compiler of this
edition extracted all of the sections dealing with Roman law and
added a brief treatise on obligation.
12. [T. E.].
The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights: Or, The Lawes Provision
for Woemen. A Methodicall Collection of Such Statutes and Customes,
With the Cases, Opinions, Arguments and Points of Learning in the
Law, As Doe Properly Concerne Women. Together with a Compendious
Table, Whereby the Chiefe Matters in This Booke Contained, May Be
the More Readily Found. London: Printed by the Assignes of John
More, 1632. [xiv], 404 pp. Reprint available May 2005 by The Lawbook
Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-525-4. Cloth. $125.
* Reprint of the first edition. The first work devoted exclusively
to women’s law, this incomparable digest of laws in force at the
time of the Civil War is also known as The Womens Lawyer. An
anonymous work, its preface is signed T.E. Often attributed to
Thomas Edgar [fl. 1615-1649], some believe the author was actually
Sir John Dodderidge [1555-1628], an important legal figure during
the reign of James I. Lord Campbell considers it “a learned work on
the subject of marriage” (cited in Sweet & Maxwell). It also treats
such diverse topics as age of consent, dower, hermaphrodites,
polygamy, wooing, partition, chattels, divorce, descent, seisin,
treason, felonies and rape. Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography
of the
British Commonwealth of Nations
1:500 (24).
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