ELIZABETHAN LAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 705, 3 July 1929, Page 7

ELIZABETHAN LAW

PROF. R. M. ALGIE’S LECTURE PERIOD OF TRANSITION A survey of the Law and Legal Customs in Shakespearean and Elizabethan times was given by Professor R. M. Algie in the University Hall last evening as the sixth of a series of lectures on “The Life and Times of Shakespeare.” ‘Tlio characteristic features of the legal aspects of the Elizabethan period,” said Professor Algie, “are comparatively dull. The thoughts of most men of the day were concentrated on anything but law. There were, therefore. few outstanding statutes created during the period, although there are several interesting details' of the time Worth remembering. For instance, just before Elizabeth’s accession Englishmen acquired the right to sell their own land by private treaty, and they were also granted the power to leave their possessions to their descendants by will.” Hitherto, the lecturer explained, landholders had been compelled to give notice to their landlords and to gain their permission before they could transfer their properties. Also, no one had been permitted to divide his property by will as it all descended by the law of primogeniture, to the eldest son.

The reign of Henry VIII., only a short time before the period of the lecture, saw the practical completion of a work begun by Henry 11. Henry VIII. finally did away with the multiplicity of courts which had always troubled and confused English justice. Instead of the Royal Courts, the Ecclesiastical Courts, the Baronial Courts and the Shire and Hundred Courts being all practically on an equal footing, he made the Royal Courts supreme and at one blow simplified the whole system of judicial administration Consequently, at the beginning of Elizabeth’s l'eign the king or queen controlled the courts and had supreme power in all legal questions. Two very necessary conveniences, much in use in .the present day, came into being during this period. The custom of using bills of exchange was initiated but, curiously enough, the law frowned upon it and it was not until nearly 250 years later that it was officially sanctioned. In the meantime merchants had to make customary laws to suit themselves. Under the Tudors and later under the Stewarts, the system of granting patents began. It had for centuries been usual for the king to grant patents for foreign trade to various merchant guilds, but Elizabeth and the Stewarts often gave them to individuals —usually their favourites —for life. By 1623 the people had begun to grumble so much at these unfair privileges that Parliament passed the famous Monopolies Act. which formulated patent laws almost identical with those in force today. • The reason that English Patent Law is so hard on inventors,” said the lecturer, “is that the granting of patents was so greatly abused by Elizabeth and the first Stewarts.” There were three forms of marriage accepted during the period. The first was carried out by a priest after banns had been read and in a church, just as today; the second, which was known as “clandestine” marriage, was performed by a priest, but not in a church and without the formality of banns. The third form was known as the “consent” marriage. Two people simply agreed before witnesses to marry and the ceremony was complete. In this form, however, the husband did not get his wife’s property and the children did not inherit if the parents died intestate. AH three marriages were indissoluble except by Act of Parliament, a thing which was very rarely granted. The professor sketched the rough-and-ready methods of the criminal administration of the period, saying that, in one year a few months before Elizabeth’s accession, 72,000 people were executed, most of them being punished for petty crimes. In conclusion he described Elizabeth’s chancellors and their methods of administration.