Teaching Comparative Law in Eighteenth-Century England:  Thomas Bever as a Comparative Lawyer as Exemplified by his Lectures on Polish  Law and the Constitution

Łukasz Jan Korporowicz

doi:10.18778/0208-6069.99.09

Authors

Łukasz Jan Korporowicz University of Lodz, Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Roman Law https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5725-5018

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/0208-6069.99.09

Keywords:

Eighteenth-century, Oxford, Comparative law, Teaching, Old Polish law

Abstract

The origins of comparative legal studies usually date back to the late 19th century. These kind of studies, however, were undertaken on a regular basis much earlier. Among the first serious adherents of the idea of comparing different legal systems was Thomas Bever. Bever was a civilian lawyer who successfully combined practice in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts of England with Oxford’s fellowship and teaching duties. In the 1760s and 1770s, Bever was teaching the Civil law course on behalf of (or independently of) the current holders of the Regius Professorship. His lectures, unique in many aspects, were crowned with a set of comparative lectures. Bever was presenting the constitutional and legal systems of several European countries, including Poland, both in historical and modern dimensions. The aim of this article is to discuss Bever’s attitude towards comparative legal studies as well as to present his comparative method by reference to part of his lectures devoted to the old Polish law and constitution.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Austen-Leigh, Richard A. 1927. The Eton College Register, 1698–1752. Vol. 1. Eton: Spottiswoode–Ballantyne & Co. Ltd.
Google Scholar

Barton, John. 1986. “Legal Studies.” In The History of the University of Oxford. Vol. 5. Edited by T.H. Aston. 593–603. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Barton, John. 2004. “Bever, Thomas.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. 585. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Beatson, Robert. 1788. A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 1. Second Edition. London: Printed for G.G.J. & J. Robinson.
Google Scholar

Bever, Thomas. 1766. A Discourse on the Study of Jurisprudence and the Civil Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar

Blacker, Bever H. 1891. “Hippisley, Sir John Coxe (1748–1825).” In Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 27. 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Google Scholar

Boden, Anthony. Ed. 2016. Thomas Tomkins: The Last Elizabethan. London–New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315084794
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315084794

Butterwick, Richard. 1998. Poland’s Last King and English Culture. Stanisław August Poniatowski 1732–1798. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar

Chalmers, Alexander. 1812. The General Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 5. New Edition. London: Printed for J. Nichols and Son.
Google Scholar

Chateris, Richard. 2000. “Thomas Bever and Rediscovered Sources in the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg.” Music & Letters 81.2: 177–209. https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/81.2.177
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ml/81.2.177

Coxe, Henry. Ed. 1842. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of All Souls College. Oxonii: E Typographeo Academico.
Google Scholar

Ditchfield, Peter H. William Page. Eds. 1923. A History of the County of Berkshire. Vol. 3. London: Victoria County History. British History Online. Accessed 1 October, 2020. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3
Google Scholar

Eggington, Tim. 2014. The Advancement of Music in Enlightenment England. Benjamin Cooke and the Academy of Ancient Music. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.
Google Scholar

Foster, Joseph. Ed. 1888. Alumni Oxonienses. The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Later Series. A–D. Oxford: Parker and Co.
Google Scholar

Frederick II, King of Prussia. 1751. Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg: From the Earliest Accounts to the Death of Frederick I, King of Prussia. London: Printed for J. Nourse.
Google Scholar

Griffiths, John. Ed. 1888. Statutes of the University of Oxford Codified in the Year 1636 under the Authority of Archbishop Laud Chancellor of the University. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Google Scholar

Helmholz, Richard. 2015. “Arthur Duck (1580–1648).” Ecclesiastical Law Journal 17.2: 215–220. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956618X15000083
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956618X15000083

Helmholz, Richard. 2016. “Thomas Bever (1725–1791).” Ecclesiastical Law Journal 18.3: 336–342. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956618X16000569
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956618X16000569

Heutger, Viola. Eltjo Schrage. 2006. “Legal history and comparative law.” In Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law. Edited by Jan M. Smits. 505–520. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781006108.00046
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781006108.00046

Konopczyński, Władysław. 1947. “Anglia a Polska w XVIII wieku.” Pamiętniki Biblioteki Kórnickiej 4: 93–129.
Google Scholar

Korporowicz, Łukasz Jan. 2021. “George Harris and the Comparative Legal Background of the First English Translation of Justinian’s Institutes.” In Common Law, Civil Law, and Colonial Law. Essays in Comparative Legal History from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century. Edited by William Eves, John Hudson, Ingrid Ivarsen, Sarah B. White. 120–139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955195.005
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955195.005

Lukowski, Jerzy. 1999. The Partitions of Poland. 1772, 1793, 1795. London: Longman.
Google Scholar

Marzec, Łukasz. 2015. Między Rzymem, Dunajem a Murem Hadriana. Prawo rzymskie i Europa w De Usu et Authoritate Iuris civilis Romanorum in Dominiis Principum Christianorum (1653) Arthura Ducka. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka.
Google Scholar

Poser, Norman S. 2013. Lord Mansfield. Justice in the Age of Reason. Montreal & Kingston–London–Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Google Scholar

Prest, Wilfrid. 2008. William Blackstone. Law and Letters in The Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550296.001.0001
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550296.001.0001

Puffendorf, Samuel. 1719. An Introduction to the History Of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe. Eighth Edition. London: Printed for B. Took.
Google Scholar

Sprigge, Timothy L.S. 2017. The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham. Vol. 1. 1752–56. London: UCL Press.
Google Scholar

Squibb, George D. 1977. Doctors’ Commons. A History of the College of Advocates and Doctors of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Stone, Daniel. 2001. The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386–1795. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
Google Scholar

The Newberry, Case folio J 5454 .822 no. 20.
Google Scholar

Trinity Hall, Old Library, MS 41.
Google Scholar

University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections, Dc. 4.25–4.29.
Google Scholar

“Law Lectures: Object of Law, lectures 10–13 / Thomas Bever.” Trinity Hall Cambridge. Accessed 7 October, 2020. https://www.trinhall.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/law-lectures-object-lawlectures-10-13-thomas-bever/
Google Scholar

“Personnel: Archbishops, Archdeacons, Officials and Registrars, 1560s–1894.” University of Nottingham. Accessed 7 October, 2020. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/archdeaconry/personnel.aspx
Google Scholar

The Critical Review; or, Annals of Literature 21. 1766.
Google Scholar

The Gentleman’s Magazine: and Historical Chronicle 61, Second Part. 1791.
Google Scholar

The New Present State of Great Britain. 1770. London: Printed for J. Almon.
Google Scholar

The New Present State of Great Britain. 1776. Second Edition. London: Printed for J. Almon.
Google Scholar

The Royal Kalendar; or Complete and Correct Annual Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, For the Year 1779. London: Printed for J. Almon.
Google Scholar

The Royal Kalendar; or Complete and Correct Annual Register for England, Scotland, Ireland and America, For the Year 1789. London: Printed for J. Debrett.
Google Scholar