Some notes

"The Strange Case of the Law, episode 1 of 3, Laying Down the Law"

How much revenue can it make to make the country safer? Lawyer justice was affordable to the normal man in the street - it is really high idea.

Clergy is perhaps the most loophole in Brisitish legal system.

Henry and the advisers didn't invent law in England, but they certainly gave it order, cohesion and a degree of uniformality unmatched anywhere in Europe. Now England didn't just have law, they had a legal system.

Magna Carta: a recognition that people have the rights. In the 18th century, it inspired the fathers of the American revolution, and provided the basis of the United States constitution.

"The Strange Case of the Law, episode 2 of 3, The Pursuit of Liberty"

Put king of England in trial against his people.

Slave trade triggered its abolition

Edward Cook: his influence is only second to the kings. a very prominent figure in the oppostion to Charles First in 1620s. The royal prosecutor became champion of public liberty. Reinvented himself as champion of the common law. The King's position was to form back his beliefs, to rule by divine right. - he could do as he pleased. Cook made King enshrine all rights in law for the Englishmen. (The Petition of the Right: habeas corpus - foundation documents of its liberties)

Civil war was born out of legal disputes around 1640s. Charles' death signifies law as the birth rights of the Englishmen.

Hebeas corpus became a weapon against unlawful threat and arbitrary imprisonment.

James Summerset, was a slave traded - can slaves be Birtish citizen? Judgement said: the status of slavery is such a nature so odius that the English common law would never accept it.

"The Strange Case of the Law, episode 3 of 3, Presummed Innocent"

It went beyond due process to enshrine the English procedure the principle of the equality of arms of simple fairness - sharped by shift of society, from industrialization to the rise of popular press. William Garrow. Rules of what could be said and what could not be said were introduced.

Cornerstone of ideas of justice across the world: innocent until proven guilty.

Thomas Elskin, the lawyer who championed the new culture of rights. - adversarial approach

The English legal system is the greatest gift to the world.