Until the later decades of the 20th century, law developed little as an academic discipline in England. One exceptional period of intellectual growth, however, was the late-Victorian era, when a number of brilliant and now celebrated jurists produced works and devised projects which had a crucial impact on the development of English legal thought. Among this band of jurists was the great legal treatise writer, historian, and editor, Frederick Pollock. Compared with many of his contemporaries, however, Pollock has been largely overlooked by modern legal historians. Drawing upon a wide selection ... More

Until the later decades of the 20th century, law developed little as an academic discipline in England. One exceptional period of intellectual growth, however, was the late-Victorian era, when a number of brilliant and now celebrated jurists produced works and devised projects which had a crucial impact on the development of English legal thought. Among this band of jurists was the great legal treatise writer, historian, and editor, Frederick Pollock. Compared with many of his contemporaries, however, Pollock has been largely overlooked by modern legal historians. Drawing upon a wide selection of sources, the author offers a detailed picture of this enigmatic figure, examining Pollock’s career, jurisprudence, philosophy of the common law, treatise writing, and editorial initiatives, and shows that Pollock’s contribution to the development of English law and juristic inquiry is both complex and crucial.