ANGLO-NORMAN FEUDAL LAW
The first paradox is the continental origin of the English comÂmon law. To many people, who see the common law as quint- essentially English, the realization of this historical fact comes as a shock.
Yet, a fact it is. Nobody will deny that the comÂmon law has indeed developed in the course of the centuries into a peculiarly English phenomenon, that it has been instruÂmental in shaping the English character and is a great English achievement. Nevertheless at its very beginning it was the feuÂdal law as administered by the English royal courts under King Henry II. That feudal law had been imported into England by the Norman conquerors and had basically been developed on the Continent, from the days of Charlemagne onwards. The law administered in the court of Henry II was Anglo-Norman, shared by the duchy of Normandy and the kingdom of England, and formed the legal basis of the landed wealth of the knightly class that ruled on both sides of the Channel under its common king-duke. Fiefs in England and Normandy were similar instituÂtions and the English royal writs had their exact counterparts in the Norman ducal briefs (brevia was their common Latin name). Moreover, Henry II, who was the father of the English common law and took a great personal interest in legal problems, was a French prince who belonged to the ancient provincial dynasty of the counts of Anjou and ruled over a greater part of France (Anjou, Normandy and Aquitaine) than the king of France himÂself. His â€?empire’ was a conglomerate of national or provincial states, and it was only after the â€?loss of Normandy’ to France in 1204 that the kingdom and the duchy went their separate ways and the original Anglo-Norman law became purely English. It continued the work of Henry II in England, while Normandy came under the influence of Roman law (as did other parts ofFrance). Maitland’s authoritative voice, â€?The law which prevails in England at the end of the twelfth century, more especially the private law, is in a certain sense very French. It is a law evoked by French-speaking men, many of whom are of French race, many of whom have but begun to think of themselves as Englishmen; in many respects it is closely similar to that which prevailed in France’, may be quoted here.1