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Henry James Sumner Maine Quotes

Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, , was a British Whig comparative jurist and historian. He is famous for the thesis outlined in his book Ancient Law that law and society developed "from status to contract." According to the thesis, in the ancient world individuals were tightly bound by status to traditional groups, while in the modern one, in which individuals are viewed as autonomous agents, they are free to make contracts and form associations with whomever they choose. Because of this thesis, Maine can be seen as one of the forefathers of modern legal anthropology, legal history and sociology of law. Wikipedia  

✵ 15. August 1822 – 3. February 1888
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Henry James Sumner Maine: 3   quotes 0   likes

Famous Henry James Sumner Maine Quotes

“So great is the ascendancy of the Law of Actions in the infancy of Courts of Justice, that substantive law has at first the look of being gradually secreted in the interstices of procedure; and the early lawyer can only see the law through the envelope of its technical forms.”

Henry James Sumner Maine

‘Dissertations on Early Law and Custom’ (1883) ch. 11.

“The movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract.”

Henry James Sumner Maine

‘Ancient Law’ (1861) ch. 5.

“Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin.”

Henry James Sumner Maine

‘Village Communities’ (3rd ed., 1876) p. 238.

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