The Year Books are the earliest

law report A or is a compilation of Legal opinion, judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. These reports serve as published records of judicial decisions that are cited by lawyers and judges for their use as precedent in subsequ ...

s of England. This name for the later collections of these reports is of modern origin. Substantial numbers of manuscripts circulated during the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, containing reports of pleas heard before the Common Bench. In the sixteenth century versions of this material appeared in print form. These publications constituted the earliest

legal precedent Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...

s of the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

. They are extant in a continuous series from 1268 to 1535, covering the reigns of King

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. The language of the original manuscripts and editions was either

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Law French Law French () is an archaic language originally based on Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England from the 13th century. Its use continued for several centur ...

. Maitland and others have considered that the medieval manuscripts were compiled by law students, rather than being officially sanctioned accounts of court proceedings. The best-known printed version is the so-called "Vulgate" edition, which appeared in a series of volumes between 1678 and 1680, and which became the standard edition consulted by practising

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

s. More recent editions for the use of lawyers and historians have been made by the

Selden Society The Selden Society is a learned society and registered charity concerned with the study of English legal history. It functions primarily as a text publication society, but also undertakes other activities to promote scholarship within its sphere ...

. Traditionally, they have been divided into eleven separate series: # Maynard's Reports, temp. Edw. II.; also divers Memoranda of the

Exchequer In the Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's ''Transaction account, current account'' (i.e., mon ...

, temp. Edward I. # Reports in the first ten years of Edw. III. # Reports from 17 to 39 Edward III. # Reports from 40 to 50 Edward III. # Liber Assisarum; or Pleas of the Crown, temp. Edw. III. # Reports temp. Hen. IV. and Hen. V. # Annals, or Reports of Hen. VI. during his reign, v. 1 # Annals, or Reports of Hen. VI. during his reign, v. 2 # Annals of

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

. # Long Quinto; or Reports in 5 Edward IV. # Cases in the reigns of

Edward V Edward V (2 November 1470 – ) was King of England from 9 April to 25 June 1483. He succeeded his father, Edward IV, upon the latter's death. Edward V was never crowned, and his brief reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and Lord ...

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

, Henry VII, and Henry VIII. Year Book Edward I

A number of

abridgement An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone (literature), ...

s of the Year Books were compiled and circulated by various editors, who sought to excerpt leading cases and categorise them by subject. The first abridgment was made by Nicholas Statham, Baron of the Exchequer under

, in around 1470. The last year for which a yearbook was printed was 1535. Thereafter printed law reports became more various. The earliest such reports are called the

nominate reports The nominate reports, also known as nominative reports, named reports and private reports, are the various published collections of Law report, law reports of cases in English courts from the Middle Ages to the 1860s. Most (but not all) are reprin ...

; their original publications were named after the court reporter who compiled and edited them. Sir

Edward Coke Sir Edward Coke ( , formerly ; 1 February 1552 – 3 September 1634) was an English barrister, judge, and politician. He is often considered the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan and Jacobean era, Jacobean eras. Born into a ...

was one important early jurist who published a series of court reports during his tenure as chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas.''UK Case Law Guide''

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

References

External links

*Alfred John Horwood, Year Books of the Reign of King Edward the First, 1864
20 & 21 Edw.132 & 33 Edw.1
(from

Google Book Search Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

) *{{cite book , editor-first=F. W. , editor-last=Maitland , title=Year books of Edward II, vol. III , publisher=Selden Society , date=1905 , isbn=0-85423-036-X * A searchable database of the Year Books is available at the Boston University School of Law website, edited by David Seipp::. https://www.bu.edu/law/faculty-scholarship/legal-history-the-year-books/ 1268 establishments in England 1535 disestablishments in England 13th-century manuscripts 14th-century manuscripts 15th-century manuscripts 16th-century manuscripts Legal history of England Case law reporters of the United Kingdom Edward II of England Edward III of England Henry IV of England Henry V of England Henry VI of England Edward IV Edward V Richard III of England Henry VII of England Henry VIII

See also

References

External links