Unlike many other places in Europe, notaries public did not take hold and proliferate in England after the twelfth-century Legal Revolution. While judge-led law in the newly instituted inquisitorial system of justice implemented by the church and some Continental states necessitated a vast army of notaries to take down depositions and record court proceedings, in England, only the church courts saw the value in implementing this approach. In large part, the absence of notarial culture associated with England’s common law is why the records produced by the medieval courts are so pithy and unrevealing … (more)
[Sara M Butler, Legal History Miscellany, 27 November 2024]
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