Henry James Sumner Maine

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Maine, Henry James Sumner

Born Aug. 15, 1822, in Kelso, Roxburgh; died Feb. 3, 1888, in Cannes, France. British jurist and legal historian.

A Scot by birth, Maine studied at Cambridge University, where from 1847 to 1854 and again from 1887 he was a professor. At the same time, he practiced law. From 1863 to 1869 he was a member of the council to the governor-general of India and served as vice-chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Maine was a professor at Oxford University from 1869 to 1887. In his research he used the comparative-historical method. On the basis of a study of Hindu, Roman, German, ancient Irish, and Slavic law, he endeavored to create a comprehensive picture of the development of law and early social institutions among the Indo-European peoples. Maine applied the basic aspects of G. L. Maurer’s communal theory to many peoples.

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Drevnee pravo .... St. Petersburg, 1873.
Derevenskie obshchiny na Vostoke i Zapade. St. Petersburg, 1874.
Drevneishaia istoriia uchrezhdenii: Lektsii. St. Petersburg, 1876.
Drevnii zakon i obychai: Issledovanie po istorii drevnego prava. Moscow, 1884.

REFERENCES

Marx, K. , and F. Engels. Soch, 2nd ed., vol. 19, p. 402.
Vinogradov, P. G. “Uchenie sera Genri Mena.” Nauchnoe slowo, 1904, book 8.

References in classic literature ?

The only use of the declaration was to recognize the ancient law and to remove doubts which might have been occasioned by the Revolution.

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Sued for Eve's favor, says an ancient law report,

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So artfully can this people dissemble their sentiments that we had not been able hitherto to distinguish our real from our pretended favourers; but as soon as this Prince began to give evident tokens of his hatred, even in the lifetime of the Emperor, we saw all the courtiers and governors who had treated us with such a show of friendship declare against us, and persecute us as disturbers of the public tranquillity, who had come into Aethiopia with no other intention than to abolish the ancient laws and customs of the country, to sow divisions between father and son, and preach up a revolution.

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Nicholas looked at the ugly clerk, as if he had a mind to reward his admiration of the young lady by beating the ledger about his ears, but he refrained, and strode haughtily out of the office; setting at defiance, in his indignation, those ancient laws of chivalry, which not only made it proper and lawful for all good knights to hear the praise of the ladies to whom they were devoted, but rendered it incumbent upon them to roam about the world, and knock at head all such matter-of-fact and un-poetical characters, as declined to exalt, above all the earth, damsels whom they had never chanced to look upon or hear of--as if that were any excuse!

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Du-seen rose not so long ago," he said, "that I do not recall him well, and recently he has taken it upon himself to abrogate the ancient laws of Caspak; he had had intercourse with the Kro-lu.

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The afterword assesses FrierAEs contributions to the study of ancient law.

Ancient Law, Ancient Society

Due to the misuse of an ancient law, over half a million British pensioners are condemned to poverty by the U.

Nothing done for many pensioners living overseas

There is talk of having him impeached, an ancient law last used in 1806 to prosecute a dodgy MP, but if this comes about - and it's a stretch - it will not see Blair in jail but see him barred from public office in the UK, thus squashing his dreams of becoming Prime Minister again.

So COULDTONY Blair end up in the dock? It cost PS10m, took seven years to be published, and contained 2.6m words. So what happens now after the Chilcot report is finally out there? MIKE KELLY runs through the options

MPs may even try to use an ancient law to try to impeach the former prime minister.

Blair's 'Iraq War let-off' but soldiers face probe; Anger at Chilcot claims

This decision must be reversed immediately for the upholding of the ancient law and safety of all citizens.

Hands off our Common!

Despite there being an ancient law about light, there is no right to light.

TWEETS & POSTS

And while the current situation points to elections either being held under this ancient law, or to an automatic extension of Parliament, governments across the region have managed to hold elections and votes on time over the last year, with only a few hiccups to be reported.