Case law is a crucially important component of a modern Anglo-American law student鈥檚 education and lawyer鈥檚 practice. Students learn legal doctrine by reading, parsing, and discussing important cases; lawyers build their briefs and oral arguments by researching, analyzing, and citing precedent from prior court decisions.
The exhibit examines the long history in Anglo-American legal literature of making cases accessible to lawyers and law students. It moves from the Year Books, early sources which compiled the cases heard in a given regnal year; to the early reports of James Dyer and Edward Plowden; to the more formal law reports of Edward Coke; to the first case reporters in early America. We also examine the role of treatises and casebooks.
The exhibit was curated by Laurel Davis, Curator of Rare Books. 听It was inspired by two earlier exhibits by former curator Karen Beck, now Manager of Historical & Special Collections at the Harvard Law School Library. The exhibit will remain on view into early 2018. Please come in and take a look! The is also available to download.
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Year Book of Edward III. London, 1534.
Year Books are an ancestor of the modern case reporter. Spanning from 1272 through 1535, they were compiled anonymously, probably by law students. The 鈥渞eports鈥� of cases in the Year Books focus on the complex procedural exchange between lawyers and judges--not on the legal reasoning or the final decision, which often goes unreported. This Year Book contains cases from the Hilary term (鈥渄e termino Hillarii鈥�) of the 39th year of the reign of Edward III (鈥淎nno xxxix E. Tercii鈥�). This organization by regnal year is the source of the term 鈥淵ear Book.鈥�
Gift of Daniel R. Coquillette
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Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, La Secounde Part du Graund Abridgement鈥ondon, 1565.
After centuries of cases being reported in Year Books, it became difficult for apprentices and lawyers to sift through the many volumes and find helpful cases. With centuries between themselves and the age of full-text database searching, the best options were either to create their own commonplace books or to purchase abridgments created by other industrious lawyers. Fitzherbert (1470-1538) was a legal writer and judge, and this abridgment is one of his greatest works, digesting and making accessible over 14,000 cases.
Gift of Daniel R. Coquillette
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Les Commentaries Ou Reportes de Edmund Plowden鈥ondon, 1599.
Edmund Plowden (1518-1585) is recognized as the first reporter of English law, even though James Dyer reported earlier cases. Plowden moved further from the Year Books than Dyer. Plowden recording the pleadings, the arguments of counsel, and the judgment. He also added very brief comments of his own but was careful to separate his observations from the opinion of the court. Both Dyer and Plowden included more citations to other cases as precedent than the Year Books.
Gift of Daniel R. Coquillette
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La Huictme Part des Reports de Sr. Edw. Coke鈥ondon, 1611.
Known simply as 鈥淭he Reports,鈥� the law reports compiled by Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) are unparalleled in terms of use and citation. Coke wrote his Reports in thirteen 鈥減arts,鈥� covering years 1572 to 1616. Written in Law French, this beautiful first edition of the eighth part of the Reports contains many well-known cases. Here, you can see extensive annotations surrounding a passage from 听Dr. Bonham's Case, often referenced as a source of authority for judicial review of legislative acts.
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Abridgment des Touts les Cases Reportez Alarge per Monsieur Plowden鈥ondon, 1597.
In addition to abridgments of the Year Books, lawyers also desired abridgments or digests of reports. Our exhibit includes abridgments of Dyer, Plowden, and Coke. In this Plowden abridgment, cases that take up over 20 pages of text in his reports are summarized in a few short paragraphs. These smaller volumes made the law both more portable and more findable than the giant volumes of reports themselves would allow.
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Sir James Burrow, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of King鈥檚 Bench, During the Time of Lord Mansfield鈥檚鈥ondon, 1790. 5 volumes.
Burrow (1701-1782) reported cases decided by the King鈥檚 Bench from 1756-1772. The publication of the first volume of his reports in 1765 marks an important moment in the history of law reporting. Compiled with an eye toward publication, Burrow鈥檚 Reports was accurate and well organized, with clear demarcation between facts, arguments of counsel, and judgment of the court. Burrow鈥檚 Reports would be more familiar to the modern eye than any mentioned thus far.
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Ephraim Kirby, Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut, from the Year 1785, to May 1788. Litchfield, Conn., 1789.
Prior to the American Revolution, colonial lawyers relied on English reports and manuscript opinions from local courts. Toward the very end of the 18th century, American reporters began to report opinions, following in the footsteps of Dyer, Plowden, Coke, and Burrow. Kirby was probably the first American reporter of cases. He used to his advantage a Connecticut law requiring that judges provide written reasons for their opinions. This made it easier to summarize the judge鈥檚 reasoning and judgment; he also concisely stated the pleadings and the arguments of counsel.
Gift of Kathryn Preyer
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Reports of Cases Argued鈥n the Supreme Judicial Court鈥ewburyport, MA, 1811.
In 1804, Massachusetts became the first state to create a position for an official reporter. This is the second volume of what is now known as the Massachusetts Reports. When released, it was called Tyng鈥檚 Reports for the reporter at the time鈥擠udley Atkins Tyng. For this reason, you may see parallel citations like this: Benson v. Swift, 2 Mass. (1 Tyng) 50 (1806). The first Massachusetts reporter, Ephraim Williams, took down oral opinions; by Tyng鈥檚 tenure, the court had transitioned to written opinions.
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<Nicholas Baylies, A Digested Index to the Modern Reports鈥ontpelier, 1814.
Even as early as 1814, American lawyers needed help sifting through existing American and English case law. In this early digest, Baylies created an subject-based index (from Abatement to Writ of Right) to 77 volumes of English and American reports, including the Massachusetts Reports, Supreme Court decisions reported by Dallas and Cranch, and Burrow鈥檚 and Cowper鈥檚 reports. By the end of the 19th century, the amount of case law exploded with the arrival of West鈥檚 National Reporter System; West then created digests for its regional reporters.
Gift of Daniel R. Coquillette
