Bracton Centre for Legal History Research (BCLHR) news archive 2019-2023
Legal Records Jamboree
Celebrating the rich range of archival sources that underpin legal historical research.
A new special issue of Family and Community History
Exploring the complexity and messiness of Victorian marriage.
New research presented to the Law and History Network
Analysing the doctrine of 'art and part' liability: Research presented to the Law and History Network
New open-access book co-authored by Rebecca Probert
Belief in Marriage: The evidence for reforming weddings law
Stephen Skinner publishes chapter on threats to the rule of law
Identifying Dangers to Democracy: Fascism, the Rule of Law and the Relevance of History.
The ambiguity of ‘civil’ marriage in Victorian England and Wales
The Journal of Legal History has published a special issue on the topic of marital law.
Stephen Skinner presents research paper on subversion at Glasgow University
‘For My Enemies the Law: Subversion, Crime and Security in Comparative Perspective’
Stephen Skinner publishes article in Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
'Inciting Military Disaffection in Interwar Britain and Fascist Italy: Security, Crime and Authoritarian Law'
Administrative Areas in the History of Income Tax Law
Professor Chantal Stebbings gave a paper entitled ‘Administrative Areas in the History of Income Tax Law: A Challenging Anachronism’ at the History of Tax Law Conference, University of Cambridge.
Stephanie Dropuljic presents prize-winning paper at the British Legal History Conference
Stephanie Dropuljic presented a paper at the 25th British Legal History Conference on ‘Early modern law reform? Parliament and Criminal Liability in Scotland’.
Bureaucratic Law-making: The Power of Dislocation in the Legal History of Tax
Professor Chantal Stebbings gave a paper entitled ‘Bureaucratic Law-making: The Power of Dislocation in the Legal History of Tax’ to the University of Cambridge Centre for English Legal History
Zooming in on marriage practices
In April 2020 April Professor Rebecca Probert gave talks on her research on the history of marriage to Exeter U3A and the Kenilworth Family History.
Tax and Revolutions
In June 2021 Professor Chantal Stebbings delivered her thematic report on Tax and Revolutions to the European Association of Tax Law Professors Congress (Amsterdam/Online).
Third summer meeting
The third summer meeting of the Bracton Centre for Legal History Research was held via Zoom on Friday 11 June.
Taxing Luxuries
In August 2021 Professor Chantal Stebbings spoke to the International Institute of Public Finance Congress (Reykjavik/online) on Taxing Luxuries in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Old Perceptions and Modern Influences.
Tying the Knot
In September 2021 Professor Rebecca Probert’s new monograph, Tying the Knot: The Formation of Marriage 1836-2020, was published by Cambridge University Press.
‘The Dreadful Monster’
In September 2021 Professor Chantal Stebbings was invited to join a panel to discuss Professor Julian Hoppit’s new book, The Dreadful Monster and its Poor Relations (Penguin, 2021).
Getting married: the origins of the current law and problems
Professor Rebecca Probert delivered a talk on 'Getting married: the origins of the current law and problems' at the Ecclesiastical Law Society's one-day conference on 'The Solemnization of Matrimony: past, present and Future'.
Tax in the Historic Landscape
In February 2021 Professor Chantal Stebbings delivered a public lecture on ‘Tax in the Historic Landscape’, hosted by the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers.
The regulation of universities as charities
A new article by Dr Mary Synge considers the effect of statutory reforms in 2006, which sought to extend charity law regulation to so-called 'exempt charities'.
Regulating English Midwives
Dr Sarah Fox of the University of Manchester delivered a fascinating talk on the topic of ‘Regulating English Midwives, c.1500 to 1902’
The Value of Legal History
Professor Chantal Stebbings gave the plenary keynote lecture at the Tax Research Network Conference, hosted by the University of Cambridge.
Sharing research with the wider community
Professor Rebecca Probert used Zoom to present her latest research on marriage law and practice
Second summer meeting
The second summer meeting of the Bracton Centre for Legal History Research was held via Zoom on Friday 3 July.
Marriage, religion and the state
On 12 April 2019 Professor Rebecca Probert delivered the Wilson Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Centre for Private Law.
Barouches, curricles, gigs and wagons: taxing travel in Georgian England
In this new chapter, Professor Chantal Stebbings shows how road travel was one of the most highly and comprehensively taxed activities in Britain throughout the Georgian era.
Professor Chantal Stebbings gave the 2019 Selden Society Lecture
The lecture was entitled The Taxation of Georgian Luxury: An Insignificant Orthodoxy?
Landmark case provides a window onto the nature, role and dangers of tax practice.
In her latest chapter, Professor Chantal Stebbings shows how the case of Farmer v Glyn-Jones [1903] 2 KB 6 was an action deliberately initiated by William Glyn-Jones as the Secretary of the Chemists’ Defence Association in order to provoke a definitive judicial ruling on the right of qualified chemists and druggists to recommend and sell recognised medicines free from the medicine stamp duty.
New publication highlights historical definitional discourses on administrative law
As a branch of public law concerned with executive power, administrative law is intrinsically tied to the nationally specific constitutional values, historical traditions, political and judicial institutions and governmental systems in which it intervenes.
Enlightening Outlook on Agreements
Dr Timothy J. Dodsworth considers the varied nature of agreements beyond the formal rules of contract and how a cultural lens can provide a glimpse of how agreements shaped everyday life during the enlightenment period.
Taxing luxuries
On 8 July 2019 Professor Chantal Stebbings gave the 2019 Selden Society Lecture in the Large Pension Room at Gray’s Inn.
What makes a marriage? Religion, the state, and the individual in the long nineteenth century
On 12 July 2019 Professor Rebecca Probert delivered one of the keynote lectures at the British Legal History Conference at St Andrews.
Harsh punishments for “greedy, deceitful and nasty” bigamists, new research shows
Bigamists were treated harshly by judges who transported them abroad because of their “greedy, deceitful and nasty” treatment of women, a new study shows.
New research on state intervention into the lives of the poor in late-Victorian London
Dr Rachel Pimm-Smith's latest article ‘District Schools and the erosion of parental rights under the Poor Law: a case study from London (1889-1899)’ was published in Continuity and Change in December 2019.
Law Reporting and Law Making: a new study on the Missing Link in Nineteenth-century Tax Law
In her latest chapter, Professor Chantal Stebbings shows how the defining characteristic of Common Law systems is the development of law through the resolution of disputes by the judges.
Changing conceptions of the defendant in criminal trials: from trial by ordeal to trial by social media
This new article by Dr Rachel Gimson explores the historical development of the role of the defendant in English criminal trials.