The Rule of Law, 1603-1660

English political relationships in the seventeenth century were governed by the law. The cataclysmic upheavals of the period--Civil War, Revolution, Restoration--can be traced to legal causes

This is a study of law and governance in early Stuart England. It explores the use made by successive English administrations, of the legal system of courts and judgesin the pursuit of public policy. It introduces the reader to the prevailing ideas about the law in the seventeenth century, examines the structure and machinery of the legal system and, in particular, the role of the common law judges, and assesses the degree to which successive governments were ableand willing--to keep faith with the requirements of the law.

This book measures contemporary attitudes to the law to see how c17th century Englishmen defined the role of law in their society, to see what their expectations were of the law and how these expectations helped shape political debate and determined political decisions over the course of a very turbulent century.

The issues discussed in the book are central to any understanding of the constitutional conflicts of the centuryand therefore to the evolution of the English and American legal system. This book provides a clear and balanced synthesis of the arguments presented in that process and of the specific cases involved.

James S. Hart Jr is Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma. He is the author of `Justice Upon Petition: The House of Lords and the Reformation of Justice, 1621-1675 (1991).