Halsbury's Laws of England (First Edition)/Volume 1

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THE

LAWS OF ENGLAND

BEING

A COMPLETE STATEMENT OF THE WHOLE LAW OF ENGLAND.

BY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE

EARL OF HALSBURY

LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN,

1885-86, 1886-92, and 1895-1905.

AND OTHER LAWYERS.

VOLUME I.

INTRODUCTION.

ACTION. ALLOTMENTS.

ADMIRALTY. ANIMALS.

AGENCY. ARBITRATION.

AGRICULTURE. AUCTION AND AUCTIONEERS.

ALIENS. BAILMENT.

BANKERS AND BANKING.

LONDON: BUTTERWORTH & CO.

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CONTRIBUTED BY

INTRODUCTION . ACTION . ADMIRALTY AGENCY . AGRICULTURE . ALIENS . ALLOTMENTS . ANIMALS . ARBITRATION . AUCTION AND AUCTIONEERS. BAILMENT. BANKERS AND BANKING.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Halsbury, a Member of the Judicial Committee of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. George Albert Bonner, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, a Master of the Supreme Court, assisted by Henry Stephen, Esq., H. L. Ormsby, Esq., E. A. Cohen, Esq., M.A., and F. R. Bush, Esq., M.A., Barristers- at-Law. The Right Hon. Sir Gainsford Bruce, a Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and late one of His Majesty's Judges of the King's Bench Division: Charles Fuhr Jemmett, Esq., B.C.L., Barrister-at-Law; and Edward Stanley Roscoe, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Admiralty Registrar.

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In this work an attempt is made to supply a consolidation or complete statement of the law of England as it exists at the present time. With this object in view the whole law has been under review and has been arranged under comprehensive titles; the titles selected being those which it is thought would most probably be looked for. Under each title the whole living law relating to the subject dealt with is stated. The work is believed to be unique in aim and form. It is neither an encyclopaedia, a digest of cases, nor a dictionary. It rather takes the form of a series of treatises on every branch of the law by experts in each particular branch, but by means of cross-references each treatise is made to fit in with the others, and so, it is hoped, a complete and harmonious whole is produced.

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INTRODUCTION.

An ideal code has been contemplated by many law reformers in which every case which could possibly occur should be provided for, and the determination of it be simply effected by reference to the code — a code so universal in its application that no difficulty could be found, but the solution of every legal problem would be at once disclosed. A very small experience, however, of the infinite variety of the incidents of human life will convince us that such an ideal code is an impossibility, and that the utmost that can be done is to establish some principles by reference to which a question may be decided; but even then the principles must be stated so generally that their very generality may work injustice if rigidly adhered to.