Issue 4 (54) 2021

 

Perm University Herald. Juridical Sciences. 2021. Issue 4 (54)
Title: SYSTEMATIZATION OF THE LAW IN ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 17th CENTURY: THE IMPORTANCE OF FRANCIS BACON'S IDEAS
Authors:

E. N. Trikoz, MGIMO University, RUDN University

 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ORCID: 0000-0001-7331-480X
 ResearcherID: A-7996-2018
Articles of «Scopus» & «Web of Science»:       ---
Requisites: Trikoz E. N. Sistematizatsiya prava Anglii v nachale XVII veka: znachenie idey Frensisa Bekona [Systematization of the Law in England in the Early 17th Century: the Importance of Francis Bacon's Ideas]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Juridicheskie nauki – Perm University Herald. Juridical Sciences. 2021. Issue 54. Pp. 660–688. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.17072/1995-4190-2021-54-660-688
DOI: 10.17072/1995-4190-2021-54-660-688
Annotation:

Introduction: in the year of the 460th anniversary of the birth of Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and lawyer, statesman and court practitioner, of special relevance is research into Bacon’s contribution to the development of theoretical and organizational bases of the law reform and the technique of law systematization. In his works, Bacon put forward a set of ideas concerning rationalization of common law and novelization of statutory law in early modern England. Purpose and objectives: to identify the features of legal discourse and dogmatic opposition between legal corporations of lawyers of common and civil law; to analyze their influence on the formation of Bacon’s legal worldview; to determine his contribution to the development of the concept of the ‘reform of law’ and the doctrine of the sources of law in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence; to evaluate the content of his theoretical treatises and legislative proposals concerning the systematization of statutory and case law in early Stuart England. Methods: in the course of the study of Bacon’s development as a thinker and his career advancement, we employed methodological approaches such as dialectical, cultural, general historical, sociological, dogmatic. When analyzing Bacon’s legal ideas and doctrines, his legislative projects and theoretical writings, we applied both general scientific methods (system-structural and formal-logical, inductive and deductive) and special legal methods of cognition: historical-legal, comparative-legal and formal-legal, as well as methods of legal hermeneutics, interpretation, and juris linguistics. Results: we have formulated the definitions of the ‘reform of law’ and ‘systematization of law’ in the context of the legal discourse of early Stuart England and specifically in the framework of Bacon’s teachings; studied the directions of Bacon’s activity aimed at improving the judicial procedure and evidentiary practice, at unifying the law within the Anglo-Scottish union, and also the special model of the gradual reform of English law developed by Bacon. He defined the proper legal and technical conditions for the systematization of law, the necessary elements of legalistics, and the ‘general part’ in the form of a list of legal maxims and regulis juris provided in his translation. Conclusions: according to Bacon, ‘schematism’ of reforming the law involved several successive stages. We have established the following scheme of legal systematization as the ultimate goal of the legal reform according to Bacon’s plan: review and revision of statutory law – chronological incorporation of statutes and precedents – thematic hybrid codification (or consolidation) – creation of a ‘digest’ (corpus of laws) as a final document.
Keywords: Francis Bacon; reform; systematization; common law; precedent; statute; legislative technique; legalistics; codification; code of laws; digests; doctrine; aphorisms
  download the full-version article
References: 1. Bacon F. Novyy organon [New Organon]. Sochineniya [Works]. Transl. by P. A. Bibikov. St. Petersburg, 1874. 581 p. (In Russ.).
2. Bacon F. Sochineniya: v dvukh tomakh [Works: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, 1977. (In Russ.).
3. Digesty Yustiniana [Digests of Justinian]. Transl. from Lat., ed. by L. L. Kofanov. Moscow, 2008. Vol. I. 780 p. (In Russ.).
4. Dmitriev I. S. Veselaya nauka Frensisa Bekona [The Gay Science of Francis Bacon]. Epistemologiya i filosofiya nauki – Epistemology & Philosophy of Science. 2020. Vol. 57. Issue 1. Pp. 181–201. (In Russ.).
5. Dmitriev I. S. Ot «nomosa» k «fyusisu» i obratno (kontseptsiya «zakon prirody» v filosofii F. Bekona) [From 'Nomos' to 'Physis' and Back (the Concept of 'Law of Nature' in the Philosophy of F. Bacon)]. Epistemologiya i filosofiya nauki – Epistemology & Philosophy of Science. 2021. Vol. 58. Issue 2. Pp. 170–194. (In Russ.).
6. Klyukanov I. E. «Tyaga za tekst»: filosofskie zametki ['Craving for the Text': Philosophical Notes]. Slovo.ru: baltiyskiy aktsent – Slovo.ru: Baltic Accent. 2019. Vol. 10. Issue 4. Pp. 18–33. (In Russ.).
7. Kondrat'ev S. V., Kondrat'eva T. N. Naturfilosofskie i politicheskie argumenty v yunionistskom diskurse Frensisa Bekona [Natural Philosophy and Political Arguments in the Unionist Discourse of Francis Bacon]. Vestnik Tyumenskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta –
Tyumen State University Herald. 2014. Issue 10. Pp. 54–60. (In Russ.).
8. Kochemasov A. V. Kodifikatsiya ugolov¬nogo prava v SShA [Codification of Criminal Law in the United States of America]. Moscow, 2016. 166 p. (In Russ.).
9. Makulin A. V. Evolyutsiya tablichnogo metoda v istorii filosofii: ot mistiki Drevnego Vostoka do novoevropeyskogo myshleniya [Evo¬lution of the Tabular Method in the History of Philo¬sophy: from the Mysticism of the Ancient East to Modern European Thinking]. Obshhestvo: filosofiya, istoriya, kul'tura – Society: Philosophy, History, Culture. 2015. Issue 6. Pp. 24–26. (In Russ.).
10. Murunova A. V., Tishhenko S. V. Rimskoe chastnoe pravo: slovar' latinskikh terminov [Roman Private Law: a Dictionary of Latin Terms]. Nizhny Novgorod, 2012. 83 p. (In Russ.).
11. Nersesyants V. S. Filosofiya prava. Uchebnik [Philosophy of Law: Textbook. 2nd ed.]. Moscow, 2020. (In Russ.).
12. Palamarchuk A. A. «Delo Kal'vina» i problemy anglo-shotlandskoy unii 1603 g. [Calvin's Case and Problems of the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1603]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Istoriya – Bulletin of Saint Petersburg University. Series. 2. History. 2014. Issue 4. Pp. 76–82. (In Russ.).
13. Palamarchuk A. A. Kompozitarnaya monarkhiya i pravovoy polimorfizm v rannestyuar¬tovskoy Anglii: k postanovke problemy [Composite Monarchy and Legal Polymorphism in Early Stuart England: to the Problem Statement]. Elektronnyy nauchno-obrazovatel'nyy zhurnal «Istoriya» –
ISTORIYA. 2018. Vol. 9. Issue 1 (65). P. 3. DOI: 10.18254 / S0002041-4-1. (In Russ.).
14. Palamarchuk A. A. Tsivilisty v ranne-styuar¬tovskoy Anglii: yuridicheskaya korporatsiya v poiskakh natsional'noy idei [Civil Law Specialists in Early Stuart England: Legal Corporation in Search for a National Idea]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Istoriya – Bulletin of St. Petersburg University. Series 2. History. 2012. Issue 4. Pp. 60–67. (In Russ.).
15. Palamarchuk A. A. Plodotvornoe zaimst¬vovanie ili natsional'noe dostoyanie? Spor F. U. Meytlenda i U. Stabbsa o roli tsivil'nogo prava v srednevekovoy Anglii [Fruitful Borrowing or National Treasure? F. W. Maitland and W. Stubbs on the Role of Civil Law in Medieval
England]. Dialog so vremenem. Al'manakh intellektual'noy istorii – Dialogue with Time. Intellectual History Review. 2015. Issue 52. Pp. 352–360. (In Russ.).
16. Palamarchuk A. A., Fedorov S. E. Kon-strui¬ruya korporativnoe proshloe: ranne¬styuar-tovskie yuristy v poiskakh sotsiopro-fessional'noy identichnosti [Constructing Corporate Past: Early Stuart Lawyers in Search of Socio-Professional Identity]. Anglovedenie v sovremennoy Rossii [English Studies in Contemporary Russia]. Moscow, 2019. Pp. 143–153. (In Russ.).
17. Savriko I. V. Vliyanie doktriny na protsess sistematizatsii ugolovnogo prava Velikobritanii v XVII–XIX vv. [The Influence of the Doctrine on the Process of Systematization of British Criminal Law in the 17th–19th Centuries]. Materialy Mezhdunarodnogo molodezhnogo nauchnogo foruma «Lomonosov-2021» [Proceedings of the International Youth Scientific Forum 'Lomonosov-2021']. Ed. by I. A. Aleshkovskiy, A. V. An¬d¬riyanov, E. A. Antipov, E. I. Zimakova]. Moscow, 2021. Pp. 1–2. (In Russ.).
18. Saprykin D. L. Regnum Hominis (Imper¬skiy proekt Frensisa Bekona) [Regnum Hominis (Francis Bacon's Imperial Project)]. Moscow, 2001. 224 p. (In Russ.).
19. Subbotin A. L. Frensis Bekon i printsipy ego filosofii [Francis Bacon and the Principles of His Philosophy]. Bacon F. Sochineniya: V dvukh tomakh [Works: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, 1977. Vol. 1. Pp. 5–56. (In Russ.).
20. Chelyshev P. V. F. Bekon – osnovatel' metodologii eksperimental'noy nauki Novogo vremeni [F. Bacon as a Founder of the Methodology of Experimental Science of Modern Age]. Manuskript – Manuscript. 2017. Issue 3-1 (77). Pp. 178–181. (In Russ.).
21. Bacon, Francis (1561–1626), of Gray's Inn and Gorhambury, Herts. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558–1603. Ed. by P. W. Hasler. London, 1981. (In Eng.).
22. Bacon F. Opera Francisci Baronis de Verulamio, Vice-Comitis Sancti Albani, Tomus Primus: Qui Continet De Dignitate & Augmentis Scientiarum. Libros IX. London, 1623. Sig. Ooo4r. 493 p. (In Lat.).
23. Bacon F. The Letters and Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works. Coll. by J. Spedding. London, 1868–1872. 456 p. (In Eng.).
24. Bacon F. The Works of Francis Bacon. Ed. by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, D. D. Heath. In 15 vols. Lon¬don: Longman, 1857–1874. Pp. 141–232. (In Eng.).
25. Baker J. H. Introduction to English Legal History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. 704 p. (In Eng.).
26. Baker J. H. The Three Languages of the Common Law. Collected Papers on English Legal History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Vol. 2. Рp. 531–536. (In Eng.).
27. Benton L., Ross R. J. Empires and Legal Pluralism: Jurisdiction, Sovereignty and Political Imagination in the Early Modern World. Legal Pluralism and the Empires, 1500–1850. Ed. by R. J. Ross. New York, 2013. Pp. 1–20. (In Eng.).
28. Ellis M. An Introduction to Fitzherbert's Abridgement. Abingdon, Oxon: Professional Books, 1981. 117 p. (In Eng.).
29. Brundage J. A. The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession. Vol. I. Canonists, Сivilians and Сourts. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2008. 560 p. (In Eng.).
30. Bryson W. H. Bacon, Example of a Treatise Touching Universal Justice. The Formation and Transmission of Western Legal Culture: 150 Books that Made the Law in the Age of Printing. Ed. by S. Dauchy et al. Springer International Publishing, 2016. Pp. 170–171. (In Eng.).
31. Cardwell K. Francis Bacon, Inquisitor. Francis Bacon's Legacy of Texts. Ed. by W. Sessions. New York: AMS Press, 1990. Рp. 269–289. (In Eng.).
32. Charlton K. Liberal Education and the Inns of Court in the Sixteenth Century. British Journal of Educational Studies. 1960. Vol. 9. Issue 1. Рp. 25–38. (In Eng.).
33. Coquillette D. R. Francis Bacon. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1992. Pp. 37–38. (In Eng.).
34. Coquillette D. R. Legal Ideology and Incorporation I: The English Civilian Writers, 1523–1607. Boston University Law Review. 1981. Vol. 61. Pp. 1–89. (In Eng.).
35. Coquillette D. R. Past the Pillars of Hercules: Francis Bacon and the Science of Rulemaking. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. 2013. Vol. 46. Pp. 565–579. (In Eng.).
36. Coquillette D. R. Legal Ideology and Incorporation II: Sir Thomas Ridley, Charles Molloy, and the Literary Battle for the Law
Merchant, 1607–1676. Boston University Law Review. 1981. Vol. 61. Pp. 315–371. (In Eng.).
37. Dawson J. P. The Privy Council and Private Law in Tudor and Stuart Periods. Michigan Law Review. 1950. Vol. 48. Pp. 393–428. (In Eng.).
38. De Montmorency J. E. G. Francis Bacon. Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation. 1905. Vol. 6. Issue 2. Pp. 263–283. (In Eng.).
39. Dixon W. H. Personal History of Lord Bacon from Unpublished Papers. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1861. 446 p. (In Eng.).
40. Donahue Ch. Book Review (Reviewing B. Levack, The Civil Lawyers in England 1603–1641). Yale Law Journal. 1974. Vol. 84. Pp. 167–181. (In Eng.).
41. Finch H. Nomotexnia Cestascavoir, Un Description del Common Leys Dangleterre Solonque les Rules del Art. London: Societie of Stationers, 1613. (In Fr.).
42. Geng P. Jurisprudence by Aphorisms: Francis Bacon and the 'Uses' of Small Forms. Law, Culture and the Humanities. 2019. Рp. 1–24. (In Eng.).
43. Gordon W. M. Roman Law and Scots Law: a Bibliography. The Civil Law Tradition in Scotland. Ed. by R. Evans-Jones. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. Pp. 310–327. (In Eng.).
44. Hammer C. I. Bolts and Chapel Moots at Lincoln's Inn in the Sixteenth Century. Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law. 1970. Vol. 11. Рp. 24–28. (In Eng.).
45. Helmholz R. H. Christopher St. German and the Law of Custom. The University of Chicago Law Review. 2003. Vol. 70. Issue 1. Pp. 129–139. (In Eng.).
46. Helmholz R. H. Roman Canon Law in Re¬for¬mation England. Cambridge, 1990. 233 p. (In Eng.).
47. Henry J. Knowledge Is Power: Francis Bacon and the Method of Science. London, 2002. 176 p. (In Eng.).
48. Hogan J. C., Schwartz M. D. On Bacon's 'Rules and Maximes' of the Common Law. Law Library Journal. 1983. Vol. 76. Pp. 48–77. (In Eng.).
49. Holdsworth W. S. Bacon. The Cambridge Law Journal. 1927. Vol. 3. Issue 1. Pp. 10–12. (In Eng.).
50. Huxley A. The Aphorismi and a Discourse of Laws: Bacon, Cavendish, and Hobbes 1615–1620. The Historical Journal. 2004. Vol. 47 (2). Pp. 399–412. (In Eng.).
51. Jardine L. Francis Bacon: Discovery and the Art of Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974. 261 p. (In Eng.).
52. Kocher P. Francis Bacon on the Science of Jurisprudence. Journal of the History of Ideas. 1957. Vol. 8 (1). Pp. 3–26. (In Eng.).
53. Langbein J. H. Torture and the Law of Proof. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976. 240 p. (In Eng.).
54. Learning the Law. Teaching and the Transmission of Law in England, 1150–1900. Ed. by J. A. Bush, A. Wijffels. London, 1990. 444 p. (In Eng.).
55. Levack B. P. The Civil Lawyers in England 1603–1641: A Political Study. Oxford, 1973. 311 p. (In Eng.).
56. Lieberman D. Legislation in a Common Law Context. Zeitschrift für Neuere Rechts¬ge-schich¬te. 2005. Vol. 27. Issue 1–2. Рp. 107–123. (In Eng.).
57. Maclean I. Interpretation and Meaning in the Renaissance: The Case of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 237 p. (In Eng.).
58. Manzo S. Certainty, Laws and Facts in Francis Bacon's Jurisprudence. Intellectual History Review. 2014. Vol. 24 (4). Pp. 457–478. (In Eng.).
59. Merchant C. 'The Violence of Impediments': Francis Bacon and the Origins of Experimentation. Isis. 2008. Vol. 99. Pp. 731–760. (In Eng.).
60. Mohnhaupt H. 'Lex certa' and 'Ius cer-tum': The Search for Legal Certainty and Security. Natural Law and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Europe: Jurisprudence, Theology, Moral and Natural Philosophy. Ed. by L. Daston, M. Stolleis. Farnham: Ashgate, 2008. Рp. 73–81. (In Eng.).
61. Montagu B. The Life of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England. The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England. London: William Pickering, 1834. Vol. 16. 422 p. (In Eng.).
62. Mullinger J. History of The University of Cambridge. London, 1911. (In Eng.).
63. Neustadt M. The Making of the Instauration: Science, Politics, and Law in the Career of Francis Bacon. The Johns Hopkins University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1987. Pp. 70–71. (In Eng.).
64. Pesic P. Wrestling with Proteus: Francis Bacon and the 'Torture' of Nature. Isis. 1999. Vol. 90. Pp. 81–94. (In Eng.).
65. Plucknett T. F. T. The Relations between Ro¬man Law and English Common Law Down to the Six¬teenth Century: A General Survey. University To¬ron¬to Law Journal. 1939. Vol. 3. Pp. 24–50. (In Eng.).
66. Sánchez-Gil A. S. El Jurista Barnabé Brisson (1531–1591): diss. jur. Rome: Pontifi-cium Athenaeum Sanctae Crucis, 1995. 171 p. (In Sp.).
67. Seipp D. J. The Structure of English Common Law in the Seventeenth Century. Legal History in the Making: Proceedings of the Ninth British Legal History Conference. Ed. by W. M. Gor¬don, T. D. Fergus. Glasgow, 1989. Pp. 67–74. (In Eng.).
68. Shapiro B. J. Codification of the Laws in Seventeenth-Century England. Wisconsin Law Review. 1974. Рp. 428–465. (In Eng.).
69. Shapiro B. J. Law Reform in Early Mo-dern England, 1500 – 1740: Crown, Parliament and the Press. Oxford; New York: Hart, 2019. 266 p. (In Eng.).
70. Shapiro B. J. Sir Francis Bacon and the Mid-Seventeenth Century Movement for Law Reform. American Journal of Legal History. 1980. Vol. 24. Pp. 331–362. (In Eng.).
71. Snider A. Francis Bacon and the Authority of Aphorism. Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism. 1988. Vol. 11. Pp. 60–71. (In Eng.).
72. Stein P. Regulae Iuris: From Juristic Rules to Legal Maxims. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1966. 206 p. (In Eng.).
73. Stone de Montpensier R. L. Bacon as Lawyer and Jurist. Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. 1968. Vol. 54. Issue 4. Pp. 449–483. (In Eng.).
74. The Formation and Transmission of Western Legal Culture. 150 Books that Made the Law in the Age of Printing. Ed. by S. Dauchy, G. Martyn, A. Musson, H. Pihlaja-mäki, A. Wijffels. Heidelberg, New York: Springer International Publishing, 2017. 571 p. (In Eng.).
75. The Oxford Francis Bacon: In 16 vols. Vol. XV. The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. Ed. by M. Kiernan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. 457 p. (In Eng.).
76. Tubbs J. W. The Common-Law Mind: Medieval and Early Modern Conceptions. Baltimore, 2000. 272 p. (In Eng.).
77. Walker D. M. The Oxford Companion to Law. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. (In Eng.).
78. Wallace J. W. The Reporters, Arranged and Characterized by John William Wallace. 4th ed., revised and enlarged. 1882. 673 p. (In Eng.).
79. Ward P. L. William Lambarde's Collec-tion on Chancery. Harvard Library Bulletin. 1953. Vol. 7. Pp. 271–292. (In Eng.).
80. Watt W., Plunket D., Benham D. The Story of the Inns of Court. Boston, 1928. 320 p. (In Eng.).
81. Weisst G. A. The Enchantment of Codi-fi¬ca¬tion in Common Law World. Yale Journal of In¬ter¬national Law. 2000. Issue 25. Pp. 474–477. (In Eng.).
82. Wheeler H. The Foundations of Con-stitutionalism. Loyola Los Angeles Law Review. 1975. Vol. 8. Issue 3. Pp. 507–586. (In Eng.).
83. Wheeler H. Francis Bacon's 'VERU¬LA-MIUM' the Common Law Template of the Modern in English Science and Culture. Angelaki. 1999. Vol. 4 (1). Pp. 7–26. (In Eng.).
84. Williams I. Law, Language and the Printing Press in the Reign of Charles I: Explaining the Printing of the Common Law in English. Law and History Review. 2020. Vol. 38 (2). Pp. 339–371. DOI: 10.1017/S0738248019000312. (In Eng.).
85. Winfield P. H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925. 374 p. (In Eng.).
Received: 01.08.2021
Financing:

---
The Perm State University
614068, Perm, street Bukireva, 15 (Faculty of Law), +7 (342) 2 396 275
vesturn@yandex.ru
ISSN 1995-4190 ISSN (eng.) 2618-8104
ISSN (online) 2658-7106
DOI 10.17072/1995-4190
(с) Editorial board, 2010
The magazine is registered in Federal Agency of supervision in sphere of communication and mass communications.
The certificate on registration of mass media ПИ № ФС77-33087 from September, 5th, 2008
The certificate on reregistration of mass media ПИ № ФС77-53189 from Marth, 14th, 2013

The magazine is included in List ВАК and in the Russian index of scientific citing

The founder & Publisher: the State educational institution of the higher training
“The Perm State University”.
Publishing 4 times a year