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LA HistoriografIa GENERAL DEL DERECHO ingles. By Jose Antonio Escudero Lopez. Instituto Nacional de Estudios Juridicos, Madrid, 1965. Pp. 139. Dr. Lopez's essay is a pioneer work. The study of English legal history in Spain is in its infancy. It will undoubtedly benefit from his scholarly treatise on English legal history and its bibliography. It is perhaps to the section of his essay in which he deals with the bibliography of the subject since Maitland that students will turn for useful information. The range of writing which he surveys in some detail is impressive-from Sir Edward Coke to Professor Plucknett. Naturally there are omissions. Although Bracton, Coke and Blackstone are considered as the most important precursors of legal history 'as a proper object of study', Sir John Fortescue merits only a grudging mention. There is a touch of antiquarianism about Dr. Lopez's treatment of minor figures such as John Reeves (1752-1829). Although Reeves produced an early History of English Law, he hardly seems to merit the space devoted to him (almost four pages). John Selden is summarily dismissed in two pages. But Dr. Lopez is alive to the danger of legal history becoming a private conversation conducted in private language by legal historians. He is anxious to emphasize the social foundations of English law, and instances Maine's Ancient Law (despite its errors) as an early attempt to relate the history of law to that of English society. He sees the real origins of English legal history as a 'scientific' study in what he describes as the 'revision of the existing panorama' associated with the names of Maitland, Pollock and Vinogradoff. The short biographies of legal historians, followed by lists and very brief assessments of their work are generally well done. A section is included entitled 'The North-American contribution', but Spanish students are not enlightened about the English legal history which is apparently to be found in The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes. It is in his short introductory account of the development of English law, custom, legislation and the judiciary, that Dr. Lopez provokes mild criticism. He states that from about 1290, when Parliament was 'definitely established at Westminster' (p. 223), statutes were cited by the first two words of their texts rather than by the place at which they were approved. Thus the statutes of Gloucester (1278) and Westminster (1285) gave way to Quia Emptores (1290). But what of the statutes of York (1322) or of Northampton (1328)? Dr. Lopez tends to misinterpret the nature of parliamentary development in England by being unaware of the Parlia- ments held at Bury St. Edmunds in 1296-97, at Lincoln in 1301, at York in 1332, at Shrewsbury in 1398 or even at Reading in 1453. It was only in the later fourteenth century that it became normal for Parliament to meet in the Painted Chamber of the palace of Westminster. His account of the development of statutory legislation needs some revision. In the main, however, Dr. Lopez deserves congratulation for his industry and enterprise. The printing of a Spanish text which includes