Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830–1970

Draws on archival research to tell the story of the nineteenth and twentieth-century development of commercial law through practice.

Ross Cranston (Author)

9781316648377, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

528 pages
24.5 x 17 x 3 cm, 0.898 kg

'One of the great strengths of this study as a whole is that it approaches the subjects considered from the bottom up. While there is a rich depth and array of secondary scholarship presented, the study is primarily based upon archival materials with reference to the (largely published) accounts of contemporaries involved in these transactions. The author's conclusions are thus original and provide novel insights into law and the economy. It is an important work for the lawyers of today …' Catharine MacMillan, Legal Studies

Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830–1970 adds a new dimension to the history of Britain's commerce, trade manufacturing and financial services, by showing how they have operated in law over the last one hundred and forty years. In the main law and lawyers were not the driving force; regulation was largely absent; and judges tended to accommodate commercial needs, so that market actors were able to shape the law through their practices. Using legal and historical scholarship, the author draws on archival sources previously unexploited for the study of commercial practice and the law's role in it. This book will stimulate parallel research in other subject areas of law. Modern commercial lawyers will learn a great deal about the current law from the story of its evolution, and economic and business historians will see how the world of commerce and trade operated in a legal context.

1. Commercial and Legal Context
2. The Commodity Markets of London and Liverpool
3. Agents, 'Agents' and Agency
4. Sale, Hire and the Distribution of Manufactured Goods
5. International Commodity Sales
6. Bank Finance for Trade and Industry.

Subject Areas: Company law [LNCD], Commercial law [LNCB], Legal history [LAZ], Economic history [KCZ]