Popular Law-making / A study of the origin, history, and present tendencies of law-making by statute

The study traces the development of statute law from medieval English origins to modern institutional forms. It examines the interplay of unwritten common law and parliamentary legislation, including representative consent to taxation and enforcement mechanisms. It analyzes pivotal changes such as charter protections for personal liberty, the fixing of judicial procedure, and the shift from local custom to general statutes. It surveys early commercial, property, labor, and anti-trust statutes that shaped trade, combinations, and social regulation. It concludes by assessing contemporary tendencies toward sociological legislation and the tension between legislative expansion and traditional legal doctrines.