Sir John Davies and the Conquest of Ireland
A Study in Legal Imperialism

A study of the Jacobean regime's use of judge-made law to consolidate the Tudor conquest.

Hans S. Pawlisch (Author)

9780521526579, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 July 2002

260 pages
21.7 x 14.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.34 kg

This study examines the Law Reports of Sir John Davies and litigation pleaded before the central Irish courts during the period in which Davies served in Ireland as solicitor-general (1603–6) and attorney-general (1606–19). The author's main concern is to explicate the legal and jurisprudential issues involved and to draw out their deeper political implications. He argues that, in the absence of a malleable parliament, judge-made law became the instrument by which the Jacobean regime consolidated the Tudor conquest. The book also touches on the influence of the implementation of the law on the Irish coinage, Gaelic tenurial customs and religious conformity. More controversial themes include the origins of precedent in the Anglo-American legal tradition, the use of continental civil law in common law litigation and the relationship of early modern Ireland to the development of an imperial jurisprudence.

Preface
Abbreviations
Part I. Introduction: 1. Law as an instrument of colonization
2. Sir John Davies: a biographical sketch
3. Ireland and the origins of stare decisis
Part II. Judicial Encounters: The Native Community: 4. The cases of gavelkind and tanistry: legal imperialism in Ireland, 1603–1610
5. The case of the Bann fishery
Part III. Judicial Encounters: The Colonial Community: 6. The mandates controversy and the case of Robert Lalor
7. The case of customs payable for merchandise
8. The case of mixed money
Part IV. Conclusion: 9. Sir John Davies, the ancient constitution and civil law
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]