Books of authority
Books of authority is a term used by legal writers to refer to a number of early legal textbooks that are excepted from the rule that textbooks are not treated as authorities by the courts of England and Wales and other common law jurisdictions.
These books are treated by the courts as authoritative statements of the law as it was at the time at which they were written, on the authority of their authors alone. Consequently, they are treated as authoritative statements of the law as it is at the present time, unless it is shown that the law has changed, and may be cited and relied on in court as such.
The statements made in these books are presumed to be evidence of judicial decisions which are no longer extant. The primary reason for this practice is the difficulty associated with ascertaining the law of the medieval and early modern periods.
On the subject of this practice, William Blackstone said:
Abridgements of the year books
Fitzherbert
- La Graunde Abridgement by Anthony Fitzherbert.
Brooke
- La Graunde Abridgement by Robert Broke.
Statham
- Epitome Annalium Librorum tempore Henrici Sexti by Nicholas Statham.
Anonymous
- The author of the Abridgement of the Book of Assizes is unknown. This book is sometimes called Liber Assisarum, after the Year Book from which some of its cases are abridged.
Treatises, commentaries and institutes
On the common law
Glanvill
- Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus regni Angliae... Attributed to Ranulf de Glanvill; possibly the work of Hubert Walter.
Bracton
- De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae by Henry de Bracton.
Britton
Fleta
Hengham
Traditionally, Ralph de Hengham was believed to be a prolific author of common law procedural treatises, and numerous works were attributed to him. These included not only the eponymous Hengham parva and Hengham magna, but also "Cum sit necessarium", "Exceptiones ad Cassandum Brevia", "Fet Asaver", "Judicium Essoniorum", and "Modus Componendi Brevia", among others. More recent scholarly analysis, however, reveals that only the Parva is conclusively his. Hengham may also have written two consultations.Littleton
- Treatise on Tenures by Thomas de Littleton.
Staunford
Fitzherbert
Coke
Hale
Hawkins
Foster
Blackstone
On equity
On canon law
- Provinciale by William Lyndwood