Anglo-American Legal History in Review

Elisabeth A. Cawthon and David E. Narrett, eds. Essays on English Law andthe American Experience: The Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures.Arlington: The University of Texas, 1994. Pp. xiv + 135.Joyce Lee Malcolm. To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Pp. xii +177 and notes and index.The comparative approach offers a great deal for the study of Anglo-American legal history. Given the English origins of American law and so-ciety, it might even be argued that a comparative methodology is a "natural"for studies focused on the evolution and development of law and legalsystems in North America and Great Britain. However, while the benefits ofsuch a method seem apparent, there are relatively few studies which activelyemploy a comparative approach. Further, when authors do adopt a com-parative method, more often than not they are encouraged to look to Englishinstitutions for sources, clues, and explanations as to later North Americanvariants. Rarely are the comparisons to be found running in the opposite di-rection. These two books, Elisabeth Cawthon and David Narrett's editedcollection of essays produced by the Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lec-tures, and Joyce Lee Malcolm's study of the right to bear arms fall withinthat tradition of locating the English origins of American rights and obliga-tions. While both works demonstrate the significant contribution that comparative study can offer, they are also marked by the inherent difficulties ofundertaking such an approach.