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YALE LECTURES

ON

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LAWS
AND JURISPRUDENCE.

LECTURE I.

OUR LAW IN ITS OLD HOME.

JURISPRUDENCE. -LAW MORE

MANDS.

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DEFINITION OF LAW AND
THAN A BODY OF COM-

- ETHICAL NATURE AND FOUNDATION OF LAW.RESPECTIVE FIELDS OF LAW AND MORALITY. - GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH SYSTEM OF LAW.. MAINLY THE WORK OF THE LAWYERS AND JUDGES OF ENGLAND.

A

I.

FEW months since, I received from the author- Lecture ities of Yale University a letter stating that its Law School had a WILLIAM L. STORRS LECTURESHIP, which provided for the appointment each year of a different professor to give a course of about twelve lectures on legal topics, and asking me to occupy the place for the current college year, 1891-1892. My appreciation of this honor was such as to tempt me, in spite of my many engagements, to accept the appointment.

The subject matter of the lectures being left to Introduc my judgment, I have been not a little embarrassed

tion.

I.

Lecture in determining the character and scope of this brief course. The object of lectures upon the law may be twofold: First, with the primary view to impart instruction; second, not primarily for the purpose of instruction, but rather to awaken and stimulate a real interest, -to set, if happily it may be, the hearer thinking, and to inspire enthusiasm in the study of the law, to the end that the hearer may be incited afterwards to pursue the subject on his own motion, and for the very love of it, by personal recourse to the appropriate and authentic sources of knowledge. Were I to select some single topic with a view to expository, technical treatment, I should run the risk of repeating more or less what has been already taught, and taught by lecturers who by constant use keep their equipment bright; whereas mine has so long hung idle upon the wall that it has become rusty, and its use unfamiliar. On the whole, I have determined, wisely or otherwise, to pursue the latter plan, thinking that in the long run some observations on subjects which lie beyond the marches of the ordinary legal curriculum, yet relating to matters of living and vital interest to the student of our laws, might be quite as fruitful in results as technical and didactic lectures.

Course of lectures

The course proposed may be thus outlined:

A consideration of Our Law in its Old Home, its outlined. definition, and distinctive character; the education and discipline of the English bar, and herein of the Inns of Court, their history, character, and purposes; of Westminster Hall and the characteristic qualities of the English system of law which is in

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