Repository logo
 

HISTORY, LAW AND FREEDOM: F. W. MAITLAND IN CONTEXT

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

KIRBY, JAMES 

Abstract

jats:pThis article considers the intellectual development of the historian and jurist F. W. Maitland (1850–1906). Its focus is the development of his ideas about the importance of intermediate groups between the individual and the state. Maitland expounded these ideas in a dazzling series of late essays which became the wellspring of the tradition known as “political pluralism.” Yet, as this article shows, the same ideas also played a crucial role in Maitland's great works of legal and historical scholarship, includingjats:italicThe History of English Law</jats:italic>. If this is appreciated, then the liberal, Germanist and constitutionalist basis of Maitland's thought becomes clear. So too does Maitland's position as a “new” liberal thinker, committed to freedom and constitutionalism, but critical of individualism and parliamentary sovereignty. In short, it is only if Maitland's political essays are read alongside his works of history and law that either can really be understood.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4303 Historical Studies, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology

Journal Title

Modern Intellectual History

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1479-2443
1479-2451

Volume Title

16

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)