Welcome to Bracton’s Sister, my Legal History site.  Why Bracton’s Sister? Well, it’s a nod to Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own with its notion of Shakespeare’s sister. As with literature, law was, until the twentieth century, an exclusively male profession, and we might wonder about the thoughts of Judith Bracton on the developing common law of the thirteenth century. Unlike her brother Henry, she did not have the chance of becoming a judge and reputed author/editor of an important legal treatise.  One day, her works may be discovered. Until then, there is Bracton’s Sister.

What’s it for? The idea is that it will:

1. give some details of my current research projects;

2. note interesting new work from others which has impressed me;

3. bring a bit of legal history into more lives than could be reached by seminar and conference presentations and academic journal papers.

Legal historians don’t tend to get out much, which is a pity, because our subject is fascinating and packed with human interest, as well as the intricacies of writs and deeds. Sometimes, there’s even some humour. So the site will allow me to publicise the interest of the subject (without actually having to go out and talk to real people). Ideal.  And Judith Bracton agrees.