This course introduces students to the historical development of law in England and Australia over the one thousand years to 1842. In doing so, it mainly proceeds chronologically, charting the role played by law and legal institutions in the division of political power and in social development, paying particular attention to the emergence of the concept of the rule of law. Having focused on the law’s role in political, social and penal developments in England over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it then looks closely at its role in the rapid development of New South Wales from the rudimentary penal colony of 1788 into a free society in just 55 years. Case studies will also be undertaken, looking at the development over time of a tort, the law of contract, and the legal profession. Learning will be by reading from prescribed textbooks and a rich variety of other sources, mostly included in the extensive Course Materials available through the UNSW Bookshop.

An interest in history and desire to gain a deeper understanding not only of what the law now is, but of how and why it has become so. There are no prerequisite for this course.