John H. Langbein

Sometimes it is obvious that a book is outstandingly good. A lot of the material covered here makes for fascinating history, showing the variety in the ways a society's rules may change: by royal preemption of local court business, by ingenious competition for business between courts, by exaptation of one process for another purpose, by the outmoding of a convention too long ossified, by drastic legislation. It's also a really well constructed textbook, citing seminal secondary sources at length then glossing them in the subsequent notes, and providing primary sources for each development in the law along with questions to highlight the issues.… (more)