1.
Lord Chancellor
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The Lord Chancellor, formally the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. They are appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking after only the Lord High Steward. Prior to the Union there were separate Lords Chancellor for England and Wales, the Lord Chancellor is a member of the Cabinet and, by law, is responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts. In 2007 there were a number of changes to the legal system, the current Lord Chancellor is Elizabeth Truss, who is also Secretary of State for Justice. One of the Lord Chancellors responsibilities is to act as the custodian of the Great Seal of the Realm, a Lord Keeper of the Great Seal may be appointed instead of a Lord Chancellor. The two offices entail exactly the same duties, the distinction is in the mode of appointment. The seal is then said to be in commission, since the 19th century, however, only Lord Chancellors have been appointed, the other offices having fallen into disuse. The office of Lord Chancellor of England may trace its origins to the Carolingian monarchy, in England, the office dates at least as far back as the Norman Conquest, and possibly earlier. Some give the first Chancellor of England as Angmendus, in 605, other sources suggest that the first to appoint a Chancellor was Edward the Confessor, who is said to have adopted the practice of sealing documents instead of personally signing them. A clerk of Edwards, Regenbald, was named chancellor in some documents from Edwards reign, in any event, the office has been continuously occupied since the Norman Conquest. The chancellor headed the office or chancery. Formerly, the Lord Chancellor was almost always a churchman, as during the Middle Ages the clergy were amongst the few men of the realm. The Lord Chancellor performed multiple functions—he was the Keeper of the Great Seal, the royal chaplain. Thus, the position emerged as one of the most important ones in government and he was only outranked in government by the Justiciar. As one of the Kings ministers, the Lord Chancellor attended the curia regis or Royal Court, if a bishop, the Lord Chancellor received a writ of summons, if an ecclesiastic of a lower degree or, if a layman, he attended without any summons. The curia regis would later evolve into Parliament, the Lord Chancellor becoming the prolocutor of its upper house, as was confirmed by a statute passed during the reign of Henry VIII, a Lord Chancellor could preside over the House of Lords even if not a Lord himself. The Lord Chancellors judicial duties also evolved through his role in the curia regis, petitions for justice were normally addressed to the King and the curia, but in 1280, Edward I instructed his justices to examine and deal with petitions themselves as the Court of Kings Bench. Important petitions were to be sent to the Lord Chancellor for his decision, by the reign of Edward III, this chancellery function developed into a separate tribunal for the Lord Chancellor
2.
English contract law
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English contract law is a body of law regulating contracts in England and Wales. It is also experiencing gradual change because of the UKs membership of the European Union, any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. Generally a contract forms when one makes an offer. If the terms are certain, and the parties can be presumed from their behaviour to have intended that the terms are binding, generally the agreement is enforceable. Contracts can be made personally or through an agent acting on behalf of a principal, in principle, English law grants people broad freedom to agree the content of a deal. Terms in an agreement are incorporated through express promises, by reference to terms or potentially through a course of dealing between two parties. Those terms are interpreted by the courts to seek out the intention of the parties, from the perspective of an objective observer. Contract law works best when an agreement is performed, and recourse to the courts is never needed because each party knows her rights and it may also be that one party simply breaches a contracts terms. If a contract is not substantially performed, then the innocent party is entitled to cease her own performance, unconscionable agreements can be escaped where a person was under duress or undue influence or their vulnerability was being exploited when they ostensibly agreed to a deal. Some transactions are considered illegal, and are not enforced by courts because of a statute or on grounds of public policy. In theory, English law attempts to adhere to a principle that people should only be bound when they have given their informed, the modern law of contract is primarily a creature of the industrial revolution and the social legislation of the 20th century. William the Conqueror created a common law across England, but throughout the ages the court system was minimal. Access to the courts, in what are now considered contractual disputes, was restricted to a privileged few through onerous requirements of pleading, formalities. They risked perjury if they lost the case, and so this was strong encouragement to resolve disputes elsewhere, the royal courts, fixed to meet in London by the Magna Carta 1215, accepted claims for trespass on the case. A jury would be called, and no wager of law was needed, gradually, the courts allowed claims where there had been no real trouble, no tort with force of arms, but it was still necessary to put this in the pleading. The Court of Chancery and the Kings Bench slowly started to allow claims without the fictitious allegation of force, an action for simple breach of a covenant had required production of formal proof of the agreement with a seal. However, in The Humber Ferrymans case a claim was allowed, without any documentary evidence, despite this liberalisation, in the 1200s a threshold of 40 shillings for a disputes value had been created. Though its importance tapered away with inflation over the years, it foreclosed court access to most people, moreover, freedom to contract was firmly suppressed among the peasantry
3.
Edward Coke
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Sir Edward Coke SL PC was an English barrister, judge and, later, opposition politician, who is considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Born into a family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to study at the Inner Temple. Following a promotion to Attorney General he led the prosecution in several cases, including those against Robert Devereux, Sir Walter Raleigh. As a reward for his services he was first knighted and then made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and these actions eventually led to his transfer to the Chief Justiceship of the Kings Bench, where it was felt he could do less damage. Coke then successively restricted the definition of treason and declared a royal letter illegal, with no chance of regaining his judicial posts, he instead returned to Parliament, where he swiftly became a leading member of the opposition. In America, Cokes decision in Dr, the surname Coke, or Cocke, can be traced back to a William Coke in the hundred of South Greenhoe, now the Norfolk town of Swaffham, in around 1150. The family was prosperous and influential – members from the 14th century onwards included an Under-Sheriff, a Knight Banneret, a barrister. The name Coke was pronounced /ˈkuːk/ during the Elizabethan age, although it is now pronounced /ˈkʊk/, the origins of the name are uncertain, theories are that it was a word for river among early Britons, or was descended from the word Coc, or leader. Another hypothesis is that it was an attempt to disguise the word cook, Cokes father, Robert Coke, was a barrister and Bencher of Lincolns Inn who built up a strong practice representing clients from his home area of Norfolk. Over time, he bought several manors at Congham, Westacre and Happisburgh and was granted a coat of arms, Cokes mother, Winifred Knightley, came from a family even more intimately linked with the law than her husband. This connection later served Edward well, winifreds father later married Agnes, the sister of Nicholas Hare. Edward Coke was born on 1 February 1552 in Mileham, one of eight children, the other seven were daughters – Winifred, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Ursula, Anna, Margaret and Ethelreda – although it is not known in which order the children were born. Two years after Robert Coke died on 15 November 1561, his widow married Robert Bozoun, at the age of eight in 1560, Coke began studying at the Norwich Free Grammar School. The students were taught rhetoric based on the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Coke was taught at Norwich to value the forcefulness of freedom of speech, something he later applied as a judge. Some accounts relate that he was a diligent student who applied himself well, after leaving Norwich in 1567 he matriculated to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for three years until the end of 1570, when he left without gaining a degree. Little is known of his time at Trinity, though he studied rhetoric. His biographers felt he had all the intelligence to be a good student, after leaving Trinity College he travelled to London, where he became a member of Cliffords Inn in 1571. Coke also studied various writs till they turned honey sweet on his tongue, at the Inner Temple he began the second stage of his education, reading legal texts such as Glanvilles Treatises and taking part in moots
4.
Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne
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Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne PC, was a British lawyer and politician. He served twice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, Selborne was born at Mixbury in Oxfordshire, where his father William Jocelyn Palmer was rector. His mother Dorothea was daughter of the Rev. William Roundell of Gledstone Hall, Yorkshire and he was educated at Rugby School and Winchester College. He proceeded to the University of Oxford, graduating BA in 1834, while at University he became a close friend of the hymn writer and theologian, Frederick William Faber. He was called to the bar in 1837, Selborne entered parliament as a Conservative in 1847. He joined the Peelite Conservatives who were to help create the Liberal party in 1859. He served under Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell as Solicitor General between 1861 and 1863 and as Attorney General between 1863 and 1866, under Gladstone, he became Lord Chancellor in 1872 and was created Baron Selborne, of Selborne in the County of Southampton. His first tenure in the saw the passage of the Judicature Act of 1873. He served in the office in Gladstones Second Cabinet, and was created Viscount Wolmer, of Blackmoor in the County of Southampton. He broke with Gladstone, however, over Irish Home Rule, in 1885 and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1860. LUnion St. Jacques de Montreal v. Bélisle,6 L. R and they had five children, four daughters followed by a son. Their eldest, Laura Elizabeth, was an author and social reformer, who in 1876 married George Ridding, the first bishop of Southwell and their second, Mary Dorothea, married her first cousin, the 9th Earl Waldegrave in 1874. Their third, Sophia Matilda married the Comte de Franqueville in 1903 and their fourth, Sarah Wilfreda married her second cousin George Tournay Biddulph, the son of Robert Biddulph, in 1883. Their youngest, William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne, later became a prominent Unionist politician, Lady Selborne died in April 1885. Lord Selborne survived her by ten years and died in May 1895, a Defence of the Church of England Against Disestablishment. 2nd ed. 3rd ed. 4th ed. Palmer, Roundell, ancient facts and fictions concerning churches and tithes. Part 1, Family and personal, 1766–1865, part 1, Family and personal, 1766–1865. Works written by or about Roundell Palmer at Wikisource Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Selborne Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages Papers at Lambeth Palace Library
5.
Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn
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Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn was a Scottish judge who sat in the English courts, became a Law Lord and is remembered as one of the greatest exponents of the common law. He was the son of John Blackburn of Killearn, Stirlingshire. He was born on 18 May 1813 and his elder brother, Peter Blackburn, represented Stirlingshire in the conservative interest in the parliament of 1859-65. His younger brother was the mathematician Hugh Blackburn, the future judge was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, in which university he graduated B. A. in 1835, and proceeded M. A. in 1838. In 1870, he received the degree of LL. D. from the University of Edinburgh. Admitted on 20 April 1835, student at Lincolns Inn, he migrated thence to the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 23 November 1838, for some years after his call, he went the northern circuit in a briefless or almost briefless condition. He was appointed justice on 27 June 1859, and on 2 November following, was invested with the coif and he was knighted on 24 April 1860. The surprise with which his advancement was received was proved by the event to have been singularly ill-founded and it was soon apparent that the new puisne possessed in an eminent degree all the essential qualities of the judicial mind. Blackburns investiture with the new dignity met accordingly with universal approbation, the regret was intensified by the discovery of a curious flaw in the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, by which his resignation of office carried with it his exclusion from the House of Lords. This anomaly was, however, removed by an amending act and he died, unmarried, at his country seat, Doonholm, Ayrshire, on 8 January 1896. Blackburn was a member of the commissions on the courts of law and the stock exchange. He was author of a masterly Treatise on the Effect of the Contract of Sale on the Legal Rights of Property and Possession in Goods. Wares, and Merchandise, London,1845, 8vo, which held its own as the standard text-book on the subject until displaced by the comprehensive work of Benjamin. A new edition, revised by J. C, as a reporter Blackburn collaborated with Thomas Flower Ellis. Other notable cases that Lord Blackburn delivered judgment, Glyn Mills & Co v East and West India Dock Co 7 App, cas.591 Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Rigg, James McMullen. Dictionary of National Biography,1901 supplement
6.
Hughes v Metropolitan Railway Co
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The case was the first known instance of the concept of promissory estoppel. Thomas Hughes owned property leased to the Railway Company at 216 Euston Road, under the lease, Hughes was entitled to compel the tenant to repair the building within six months of notice. Notice was given on 22 October 1874 from which the tenants had until 22 April to finish the repairs, on 28 November, the tenant railway company sent a letter proposing that Hughes purchase the tenants leasehold interest. Negotiations began and continued until 30 December, at which point nothing was settled, once the six months had elapsed the landlord sued the tenant for breach of contract and tried to evict the company. The Court of Common Pleas held in favour of the landlord, lord Coleridge CJ delivered the leading judgment, with which Brett J and Lindley J concurred. The Court of Appeal LR1 CPD120 reversed the decision of Court of Common Pleas, james LJ, Mellish LJ, Baggallay JA, Mellor J, and Cleasby B gave judgments. The House of Lords affirmed the Court of Appeal, lord Cairns LC gave the lead judgment, with which Lords OHagan, Selborne, Blackburn and Gordon concurred. In this instance the rights of the landlord were suspended only temporarily, consideration in English law UKHL1
7.
William Watson, Baron Watson
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William Watson, Baron Watson PC, LL. D was a Scottish lawyer and Conservative Party politician. He was Lord Advocate, the most senior Law Officer in Scotland, from 1876 to 1880, Watson was born in Covington, Lanarkshire on 25 August 1827. He was the eldest son and second of the six of Eleonora and he was educated privately and studied law at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1851 and appeared for the defence of Dr Edward William Pritchard, the poisoner, in 1865. Watson was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland, one of the Scottish Law Officers and deputy to the Lord Advocate, in 1874, and was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates in 1875. In 1876, the Lord Advocate, Edward Gordon, was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and resigned as Lord Advocate and Member of Parliament for Glasgow, Watson won the ensuing by-election and was appointed Lord Advocate. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1878, Watson did not stand for re-election at the 1880 general election, and was instead appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary as Baron Watson, of Thankerton in the County of Lanark. As a member of the Privy Council, he was entitled to sit on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Receiver-General of New Brunswick A. C.437 - statement of provincial powers under the BNA Act 1867 Watson married Margaret Bannatyne in 1868, and the couple had five sons and his son William also became a law lord as Lord Thankerton. Watson lived at 20 Queens Gate in South Kensington, and was a member of the Athenæum and he is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh against the north wall, of the Victorian north extension, near the north-west corner. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by William Watson
8.
Appeal
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In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law, although appellate courts have existed for thousands of years, common law countries did not incorporate an affirmative right to appeal into their jurisprudence until the 19th century. Appellate courts and other systems of error correction have existed for many millennia, during the first dynasty of Babylon, Hammurabi and his governors served as the highest appellate courts of the land. Ancient Roman law employed a complex hierarchy of courts, where some appeals would be heard by the emperor. Additionally, appellate courts have existed in Japan since at least the Kamakura Shogunate, during this time, the Shogunate established hikitsuke, a high appellate court to aid the state in adjudicating lawsuits. Although some scholars argue that the right to appeal is itself a substantive liberty interest, in fact, commentators have observed that common law jurisdictions were particularly slow to incorporate a right to appeal into either its civil or criminal jurisprudence. Two years later, the right to appeals was extended to criminal cases. Some states, such as Minnesota, still do not formally recognize a right to criminal appeals, although some courts permit appeals at preliminary stages of litigation, most litigants appeal final orders and judgments from lower courts. A fundamental premise of many legal systems is that appellate courts review questions of law de novo, instead, appellate courts will generally defer to the record established by the trial court, unless some error occurred during the fact-finding process. Many jurisdictions provide a statutory or constitutional right for litigants to appeal adverse decisions, however, most jurisdictions also recognize that this right may be waived. In the United States, for example, litigants may waive the right to appeal, as long as the waiver is “considered, unlike trials, appeals are generally presented to a judge, or a panel of judges, rather than a jury. Before making any formal argument, parties will generally submit legal briefs in which the present their arguments. Appellate courts may grant permission for an amicus curiae to submit a brief in support of a particular party or position. After submitting briefs, parties often have the opportunity to present an argument to a judge or panel of judges. During oral arguments, judges often ask question to attorneys to challenge their arguments or to advance their own legal theories, after deliberating in chambers, appellate courts will issue formal opinions that resolve the legal issues presented for review. When considering cases on appeal, appellate courts generally affirm, reverse, some courts maintain a dual function, where they consider both appeals as well as matters of first instance. For example, the Supreme Court of the United States primarily hears cases on appeal, some jurisdictions maintain a system of intermediate appellate courts, which are subject to the review of higher appellate courts. The highest appellate court in a jurisdiction is referred to as a court of last resort
9.
William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher
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William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher PC, QC, known as Sir William Brett between 1868 and 1883, was a British lawyer, judge, and Conservative politician. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Esher in 1885, Brett was a son of the Reverend Joseph George Brett, of Chelsea, London, by Dorothy, daughter of George Best, of Chilston Park, Boughton Malherbe, Kent. He was educated at Westminster School, Kings College London and at Gonville, Brett rowed for Cambridge University Boat Club against Leander Club in 1837 and 1838, then in the victorious Cambridge crew against Oxford University in the 1839 Boat Race. Called to the Bar in 1840, Brett went to the northern circuit, on the death of Richard Cobden in 1865 he unsuccessfully contested Rochdale as a Conservative, but in 1866 was returned for Helston in unique circumstances. He and his opponent polled exactly the number of votes, whereupon the mayor, as returning officer. As this vote was given after four oclock, however, an appeal was lodged, Brett rapidly made his mark in the House, and in early 1868 he was knighted and appointed Solicitor General under Benjamin Disraeli. On behalf of the crown he prosecuted the Fenians charged with having caused the Clerkenwell Outrage, in parliament he took a leading part in the promotion of bills connected with the administration of law and justice. In August 1868 he was appointed a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, on the reconstitution of the Court of Appeal in 1876, Brett was elevated to the rank of a Lord Justice of Appeal. He was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time, after holding this position for seven years, he succeeded Sir George Jessel as Master of the Rolls in 1883. In 1885 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Esher and he opposed the bill proposing that an accused person or his wife might give evidence in their own case, and supported the bill which empowered Lords of Appeal to sit and vote after their retirement. The Solicitors Act 1888, which increased the powers of the Incorporated Law Society, in 1880 he delivered a speech in the House of Lords, deprecating the delay and expense of trials, which he regarded as having been increased by the 1873 Judicature Act. Tamplin v James 15 Ch D215, upholding a decision of Baggallay LJ in the first instance, compagnie Financiere du Pacifique v Peruvian Guano Co 11 QBD55 - Established the modern test for discovery of documents. Heaven v Pender - In the obiter dicta in his judgment of the Court of Appeal, such a principle was only finally accepted by English courts in 1932. Filburn v Peoples Palace and Aquarium Co Ltd was a case that imposed strict liability upon owners of animals for harm caused by them. The Satanita AC59 - Contract law case atypical of the conventional offer & acceptance pattern seen in English law, bretts decision at appeal affirmed by the House of Lords. Lord Esher married Eugénie Mayer in 1850, Eugénie was possibly the illegitimate daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte and Fanny Meyer, though other sources suggest that her father was one Louis Mayer. They had two sons, Reginald, and Eugène, and a daughter Violet, wife of William Humble Dudley Ward, Lord Esher died in London in May 1899, aged eighty-one, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Reginald. List of Cambridge University Boat Race crews Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Esher
10.
Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley
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Nathaniel Lindley, Baron Lindley SL PC FRS was an English judge. He was the son of the botanist John Lindley, born at Acton Green. He was educated at University College School, and studied for a time at University College London and he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1850, and began practice in the Court of Chancery. In 1855 he published An Introduction to the Study of Jurisprudence, consisting of a translation of the part of Thibauts System des Pandekten Rechts. In 1860 he published in two volumes his Treatise on the Law of Partnership, including its Application to Joint Stock and other Companies and this work has since been developed into two textbooks well known to lawyers as Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership. He took silk in February 1872, in 1874 he was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, of which he was treasurer in 1894. In 1880 he became a justice of the Queens Bench and in 1881 he was raised to be a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal and was sworn of the Privy Council and he resigned the judicial post in 1905. Lord Lindley was the last serjeant-at-law appointed, and the last judge to wear the serjeants coif, or rather the black patch representing it and he married Sarah Katharine, daughter of Edward John Teale of Leeds, on 5 Aug 1858. He died at home in East Carleton, near Norwich in 1921 and they had nine children, including diplomat Sir Francis Oswald Lindley. 1828–1872, Mr Nathaniel Lindley 1872–1875, Mr Nathaniel Lindley QC1875, Mr Nathaniel Lindley QC SL 1875–1881, Sir Nathaniel Lindley QC SL 1881–1900, Sir Nathaniel Lindley QC SL 1900–1901, The Rt Hon. The Lord Lindley PC QC SL 1901–1921, The Rt Hon, the Lord Lindley PC KC SL Lord Lindley published two notable works, Lindley on Companies and Lindley on Partnership. The latter is published today, as Lindley and Banks on Partnership. Salomon v Salomon AC22 South Hetton Coal Co v Haswell, Shotton and Easington Coal and Coke Co 1 Ch. Law Books - Sweet & Maxwell the Law Books, dServe Archive Catalog, Election ballot to the Royal Society, Lindley, Nathaniel, Baron Lindley Elected 1898. Attribution, This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Lindley, Nathaniel Lindley. The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971, Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms
11.
D & C Builders Ltd v Rees
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D & C Builders Ltd v Rees EWCA Civ 3 is a leading English contract law case on the issue of part payment of debt, estoppel, duress and just accord and satisfaction. D & C Builders Ltd was a two man building firm run by Mr Donaldson and Mr Casey and they had done work for Mr Rees at 218 Brick Lane, London E1, coming to £732. Mr Rees had only paid £250, d&C were facing bankruptcy if they were not paid. Mrs Rees phoned up to complain that the work was bad, d&C reluctantly accepted and took a receipt marked ‘in completion of account’. After that, they consulted their solicitors and sued for the balance, although in his opinion part payment of debt could satisfy a whole debt, he found that Mrs Rees had effectively held the builders to ransom. Therefore, any variation of the agreement was voidable at the instance of the debtors for duress. Collier v P & MJ Wright Ltd EWCA A strange sort of survival for Pinnels case, Collier v P & MJ Wright Ltd 71 Modern Law Review 611-620
