An important book by a preeminent scholar of English legal history
Using evidence drawn from the Year Books from 20 Edw. I to 20 Edw. III Plucknett analyzes the nature of early statutes as seen in the rules for their construction and their use in court. He shows that the early statutes were more legislative than declaratory, and were treated as such by the courts.

"This is an essay of absorbing interest and of great value to historians of the law. Every page shows not only immense industry, but sound learning." --Law Quarterly Review 39:138-139

Theodore F. T. Plucknett [1897-1965] was a Fellow of the British Academy, Professor of Legal History in the University of London and author of A Concise History of the Common Law (1929).

CONTENTS
General Preface by H.D. Hazeltine
Author's Preface
Table of Statutes
Table of Year Book Cases
Sources
List of Incipits
Introduction. The Problem and the Evidence
PART I. Legislation and Legal thought in the Early Fourteenth Century
The Scope of the Discussion
CHAP. I. Origins and Early Forms of Written Law
CHAP. II. Text and Translation
CHAP. III. The Legislature and its Place
CHAP. IV. Statutes and the Common Law
CHAP. V. Statutes and Ordinances
CHAP. VI. Legal Thought
PART II. Examples of Interpretation
Arrangement and Grouping
CHAP. I. General Words and Literal Construction
CHAP. II. The Intention of the Legislature
CHAP. III. "Exceptions out of the Statute"
CHAP. IV. Refusal of the Courts to Apply Statutes
CHAP. V. Extension of the Words of a Statute
CHAP. VI. Strict Interpretation
CHAP. VII. Conflict of Statutes
CHAP. VIII. Ignorance of Statutes among Contemporary Lawyers
CHAP. IX. The Retrospective Effect of Statutes
CHAP. X.Judicial Discretion
CHAP. XI.Statutes and the Common Law
CHAP. XII.Statutes and the Royal Prerogative
CHAP. XIII.Statutory Writs
CHAP. XIV.The Interpretation of Particular Statutes
Conclusion
APPENDIX I. Texts of Statutes
APPENDIX II. Select Cases
Index