English Law: Glanvill on Unwritten Laws and Customs

Extract from the Preface of Tractatus de legibus & consuetudinibus regni Angliae

Ranulf de Glanville; tr. John Beames (1812). A Translation of Glanville. Preface: W. Reed. pp. xxxvi–xl.

[The following is dated approximately 1187-9]
...

Since each decision [in the King's Court] is governed by the Laws of the Realm, and by those Customs which, founded on reason in their introduction, have for a long time prevailed; and, what is still more laudable, our King disdains not to avail himself of the advice of such men (although his subjects) whom, in gravity of manners, in skill in the Law and Customs of the Realm, in the superiority of their wisdom and Eloquence, he knows to surpass others, and whom he has found by experience most prompt, as far as consistent with reason, in the administration of Justice, by determining Causes and ending suits, acting now with more severity, and now with more lenity, as they see most expedient. For the English Laws, although not written, may as it should seem, and that without any absurdity, be termed Laws, (since this itself is a Law—that which pleases the Prince has the force of Law*) I mean, those Laws which it is evident were promulgated by the advice of the Nobles and the authority of the Prince, concerning doubts to be settled in their Assembly. For, if from the mere want of writing only, they should not be considered as Laws, then, unquestionably, writing would seem to confer more authority upon Laws themselves, than either the Equity of the persons constituting, or the reason of those framing, them. But, to reduce in every instance the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm into writing, would be, in our times, absolutely impossible, as well on account of the ignorance of writers, as of the confused multiplicity of the Laws. But, there are some, which, as they more generally occur in Court, and are more frequently used, it appears to me not presumptuous to put into writing, but rather very useful to most persons, and highly necessary to assist the memory. A certain portion of those I therefore intend to reduce into writing, purposely making use of a vulgar style, and of words occurring in Court, in order to instruct those who are less accustomed to this kind of vulgarity. In proof of which, I have distinguished the present work by Books and Chapters.

* This principle, the very basis of despotism occurs in  the Roman code. (Justin. Instit. L. 1. t. 2. s. 6.) It may very justly be questioned, whether it is not here cited ironically. At all events, the passage of our text can scarcely warrant the conclusion the celebrated M. Houard has drawn from it. But the Reader shall have his own words—Le Terte de notre Auteur prouve qu'après la conquéte, les Anglois regurent, de Guillaume le Bátard, les mémes Maximes que nous avions jusques-lè suivies, a l'égard du Droit exclusif, que nos Rois avoient toujours erercé, de faire les Loir. (Traités Sur les coutumes Anglo-Normandes par M. Houard. I. 378.)

....

Henry II almost certainly considered the Constitutions of Clarendon,  which were rendered into writing and codified in January 1164, as previously informal unwritten Customary Law that had been in force at the time of his grandfather, Henry I. Glanvill would have concurred with this status for them.

The meeting at Clarendon in 1164 transformed them into written English Statute Law.

References

Ranulf de Glanville . Tractatus de legibus & consuetudinibus regni Angliae, tempore regis Henrici Secundi compositus: justiciae gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanvilla, juris regni et antiquarum consuetudinum eo tempore peritissimo. Prologus: Prostant venales apud J. White et E. Brooke. pp. 29–. [Compiled in 1780]

Ranulf de Glanvill - Wikipedia

Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie - Wikipedia

Ranulf de Glanville (1965). The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England: Commonly Called Glanvill. Nelson.

G. D. G. Hall (1993). The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England Commonly Called Glanvill. Clarendon Press. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-0-19-158518-0.

R. C. Caenegem; Raoul-Charles van Caenegem (1988). The Birth of the English Common Law. Chapter 1: English Courts from the Conqueror to Glanvill: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-521-35682-4.

Natalie Fryde (2001). Why Magna Carta?: Angevin England Revisited. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-3-8258-5657-1.

Ranulf de Glanville (1780). Tractatus de legibus & consuetudinibus regni Angliae, tempore regis Henrici Secundi compositus: justiciae gubernacula tenente illustri viro Ranulpho de Glanvilla, juris regni et antiquarum consuetudinum eo tempore peritissimo. Prostant venales apud J. White et E. Brooke



That which pleases the Prince has the Force of the Law

(Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.)

Ulpian - Wikiquote

Mortimer J. Adler (2010). How to Think about the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization(Volume 2 Of 2 ). ReadHowYouWant.com. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-1-4587-2006-1.


King above Law? "Quod Principi Placuit" in Bracton
Ewart Lewis
Speculum
Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 240-269
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of America
DOI: 10.2307/2852728
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2852728