Читать книгу A Concise History of the Common Law - Theodore F. T. Plucknett - Страница 18

With his successor, Henry II, we come to one of the most critical epochs in the history of the common law. By inheritance or by marriage he had acquired the rulership of England, Normandy, Aquitaine and Anjou, and like many of his barons divided his time between England and the continent. This close connection with France was to have important results for English law as we shall see later. Whatever the lessons of Anglo-Norman public administration, the revival of learning now in progress may have brought broader views and more generous ideals. Stubbs has made the attractive suggestion that perhaps the rapid growth of the universities

“conduced to the maintenance in the educated class of an ideal of free government, drawn from ancient Greek and Roman history, which, although never likely to be realised in detail, tended to make tyranny such as that of William Rufus impossible.”¹

It must never be forgotten that the general standard of learning and culture of a nation has a large part in determining its law and polity.