Pollock, Sir Frederick

Pollock, Sir Frederick (pŏl`ək), 1845–1937, English jurist, b. London. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He succeeded to his baronetcy in 1888. Pollock was (1883–1903) professor of jurisprudence at Oxford. He devoted himself to legal study and writing; after 1914, however, he was judge of the admiralty court of the Cinque Ports. Some of his books, including The Principles of Contract (1876) and the Law of Torts (1887), have been frequently republished. Pollock was editor (1885–1919) of the Law Quarterly Review, a major British legal periodical, and editor in chief (1895–1935) of the Law Reports, the chief medium for publishing decisions of the British courts. He collaborated with F. W. Maitland on The History of English Law (1895), contributing the material on Anglo-Saxon law. He wrote monographs on Spinoza (1880, 1935); Leading Cases Done into English (1876), a parody of legal style; and his reminiscences, For My Grandson (1933). His correspondence with Oliver Wendell Holmes was published as The Holmes-Pollock Letters (1941).

Bibliography

See studies by H. D. Hazeltine (1953) and C. H. Fifoot (1971).