How to Do the Exercises

Below are the source-based exercise topics for you to choose from. I expect to add more topics shortly, as soon as I finish checking them.

To adopt one of these topics, modify the assignment page to indicate that you (or your team) are working on it. Place below the topic your research notes, indicating where you have looked as you are looking for materials, so that others can follow your progress and make suggestions.

For each source you find useful, please make good flat photocopies or scans, one or two facing pages per copy, for each page you need the reader to see, and the title page of the book or document from which you are copying. Convert your scans to PDF or TIFF files, and attach those files to the topic page.

When you have found all the sources you need, add to the research journal and the copied sources a brief textual annotation, probably less than 1,000 words, explaining the relation of the sources to the question the topic required you to pursue.

Exercise Topics

What was the relative weight of statutes and royal ordinances in the time of Edward II?

How did aristocratic political refugees secure their properties during the religious proscriptions under Mary and Elizabeth?

What can be found in non-legal sources concerning the amazing facts of Armorie v. Delamirie, 1 Strange 505, 93 ER 664 (KB 1722)?

Concerning wager of law in sales cases, explain the significance of Y.B. Mich 30 Edw III, fo. 18 (CP) (1356).

Explain the significance of the famous dispute between Lopus and Chandler for the law of deceitful warranties.

Explain the argument and significance of the (non)result in Shipton v. Dogge (1442), otherwise known as Doige's Case.

How Hamburg came to London? in the foreign bill of exchange cases.

What is the origin of the jailer's strict liability for escape?

Why is Southcote's Case?

What is the origin of the writ of certiorari?

What happened if--before the abolition of general ecclesiastical jurisdictions in 1641--an aggrieved plaintiff complained of the perjury to the church courts when the defendant falsely waged his law?

Why in 1588 might counsel prefer to bring an action of quominus than to use the ordinary mechanisms of debt collection in the Common Pleas or Queen's Bench?

Explain the context and contemporary significance of Lane v. Cotton (1701), as well as its relevance to the law of Internet infrastructure.

Explain the holding and significance of Mitchell v. Allestry (1676).

What is the relation between labor policy after the Black Death, and the development of tort-based contract law?

-- EbenMoglen - 6 Nov 2008