A macrohistory of legal evolution and coevolution: Property, procedure, and contract in early-modern English caselaw

Peter Grajzl and Peter Murrell

International Review of Law and Economics, 2023, vol. 73, issue C

Abstract: We provide a quantitative macrohistory of the evolution and coevolution of three fundamental elements of English caselaw: property, contract, and procedure. Our dataset is derived from a comprehensive corpus of reports on early-modern English court cases. Leveraging existing topic-model estimates, we construct annual time series of attention to each of the three legal domains between the years 1552 and 1764 and estimate a structural VAR. Property and procedure are affected for decades by their own shocks. Procedure and property coevolve. In contrast, contract adjusts quickly to its own shocks and does not coevolve with the other two areas of caselaw. We identify the episodes and events outside the legal system that correspond to systemic shocks. Edward Coke was a shock to procedure. The commercial revolution raised attention to contract. The Glorious Revolution, interestingly, did not lead to elevated attention to property issues, but the Civil War and Interregnum did. The evolution of contract, while relatively autonomous from the internal dynamics of the legal system, was, of the three legal domains, least autonomous from society.

Keywords: Legal coevolution; Caselaw; Legal history; Pre-industrial England; Time series; Machine-learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C32 C80 K00 N43 O17 P10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:73:y:2023:i:c:s0144818822000692

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2022.106113

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