Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
English Law, legal history, common law, colonial period, courts, American history, Maryland history
Abstract
It served as an axiom of Maryland’s constitutional history that settlers carried with them the “rights of Englishmen” when they crossed the Atlantic. In 1642 the Assembly of Maryland Freemen declared Maryland’s provincial judges were to follows the law of England. Maryland’s 1776 Declaration of Independence left a legal lacuna--- what were to be the laws and public institutions of this newly created sovereign entity? This paper considers the manner in which the sovereign state of Maryland filled the void.
Disciplines
Law | Legal History
Digital Commons Citation
Power, Garrett, "Adoption of English Law in Maryland" (2011). Legal History Publications. 25.
https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlh_pubs/25