This chapter examines the history of the common law tradition. The best explanation for the existence of a common law tradition is the historical accident, or chance, of the military conquest of England by the Normans. As a result of this historical accident, the first discernible state came into being in Europe, with defined boundaries and a central government.
Chapter
7. A Common Law Tradition: the Ethic of Adjudication
Book
This book offers a major new means of conceptualizing law and legal relations across the world. National laws are placed in the broader context of major legal traditions, those of chthonic (or indigenous) law, talmudic law, civil law, Islamic law, common law, Hindu law, and Confucian law. Each tradition is examined in terms of its institutions and substantive law, its founding concepts and methods, its attitude towards the concept of change, and its teaching on relations with other traditions and peoples. Legal traditions are explained in terms of multivalent and non-conflictual forms of logic and thought.
