Treasurer's Lecture | Professor Sir John Baker | The Elizabethan Middle Temple and the Rule of Law [ONLINE]

In his Treasurer's Lecture, Professor Sir John Baker will focus on the Elizabethan Middle Temple and the Rule of Law. High among the profession's achievements during the period of the Hall's construction was the establishment of public law as we know it. The familiar landmarks in the history of public law are parliamentary – the Petition of Right 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Bill of Rights 1689. Important as legislative statements and amplifications, they were predicated on an older common law. All governmental power depended ultimately on the power to imprison people, and it could only be subject to judicial review if there was some way of challenging wrongful imprisonment. Magna Carta’s fine words offered no practical guidance on this, and it had been in a long slumber since the thirteenth century. The development of habeas corpus was the crucial first step. It is not widely known that this occurred in the Elizabethan period, and that it was largely the work of Benchers – and judicial former Benchers – of the Middle Temple. It enabled the establishment of the principles which were fought over in Parliament in the following century.