Odger's English Common Law

54 THE SOURCES OF THE LAW OF ENGLAND.
professional lawyers; and professional opinion soon became
one of the forces which moulded the law.
There has come down to us a continuous series of law reports
running from 1307 to 1537. These are known as the " Year
Books." They are written in Norman-French and record
the decisions of the King's Court. The first volume contains
also a few cases decided in the reign of Edward I. both in the
King's Court and on circuit, which date as far back as 1292.
These Tear Books were not the work of paid reporters,
but unofficial reports compiled from rough notes made by
practitioners in court. These practitioners regularly attended
the Courts and took notes of any point of law which they
deemed would help them in their practice. Such notes were
collected and rewritten in manuscript books (called " collec-
tions ") which were handed about at the Inns of Court, and
diligently read by the young " apprentices of the law ;
" * and
soon arose the practice of regularly recording in book form the
principal decisions of the King's judges with their reasons for
the decisions and the arguments of counsel. The study of
these decisions was the only method by which an accurate
knowledge of the law could at this time be acquired ;
for the
Inns of Court had not yet begun to hold those moots and
readings which in the times of the Tudors did so much to
make our law clear and systematic.
But from the close of the Year Books in 1537 down to the
present time there has been a continuous and ever-widening
stream of law reports. Several of these were the work of the
most distinguished lawyers of the Tudor and Stuart periods,
such as Dyer, Plowden, Coke and Levinz. 2
These reports
1 See Year Book, 33 Hen. VI. (1454), 41a.
2 Sir James Dyer, b. 1512, d. 1582 judge ; of the Court of Common Pleas, 1556,
President, 1559 ; Reports from 1513—1582 published in French 1586 ; after six
folin editions, translated in 1688 into English by Treby, afterwaids Chief Justice
of the Court of King's Bench.
Edmund Plowden, b. 1518, d. 1585 ; Treasurer of the Middle Temple from 1661
to 1573 built ; the Middle Temple Hall ; published Commentaries 1571 ; Reports
from 1550—1580.
Sir Edward Coke, b. 1552, d. 1634 ; Speaker of the House of Commons, 1592-3 ;
Attorney-General, 1593-4 ; Treasurer of the Inner Temple, 1596 ; Chief Justice of
the Court of Common Pleas, 1606, and of the King's Bench, 1613 ; Reports from
1572—1616.
Sir Creswell Levinz, b. 1627, d. 1701 ; Treasurer of Gray's Inn and Attorney-
General, 1679 ; Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1680—1686 ; Reports from
1660—1697, published in folio in 1702, English translation by Salkeld in 1722.
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