1. 7th Class Attendance sheet Start audio recording Participation now on website Review Ethelbert’s Laws Women and family Next class –Somerset case

2. Review Assumpsit –Yearbook report Focuses on oral pleading unofficial –Assumpsit initially available only for malfeasance b/c writs should nor overlap –By 16 th century, nonfeasance actionable too Common Law Procedure –Procuring writ, pleading, post-trial motions in Westminster –Summoning parties, trial in locality –3 courts, 4 judges each Winterbottom & Donoghue –Modern reporting –Focuses on demurrers, appeals –Winterbottom – narrow understanding of liability Narrow reading of precedents Concerned about too many law suits –Donoghue – expansion of liability Based on search for principle to explain prior cases

3. 19th Century Civil Litigation Fusion of Law & Equity –Same judges & courts can hear trusts & wills as well as contact & property –Same judge can hear bench trials and conduct jury trals –Same court can order discovery in common law case –Same court can give relief from penalties, etc. Single Form of Action –No writs –Case initiated with “complaint” and “summons” Complaint is summary of factual claims and desired relief –Not a form

4. Ethelbert’s Laws 1) What do these laws suggest about the status of women in early medieval England? 2) What do these laws suggest about marriage and family in early medieval England? 3) What did you find interesting, surprising, or puzzling about these laws?

5. Women and Marital Status In later medieval and early modern England, women’s rights depended largely on marital status –Adult, unmarried women had full rights in “private law” Rights to own property, enter into contracts, and sue and be sued in their own names. But did not have “public” rights, e.g. right to serve on juries or vote in Parliamentary elections –Doctrine of coverture severely restricted rights of married women Property that wife brought into marriage was managed by her husband Wife could not receive grants of property in her own name Wife could not enter into contracts, except for “necessaries,” without consent of husband Wife could not sue or be sued unless her husband joined her or was joined in the lawsuit. Legal personhood of wife “suspended” or “merged into husband” during marriage

6. Chancery and Married Women Chancery alleviated some disabilities of married women –Allowed property to be held in trust for a married woman –Thus giving her de facto control over some property –Only helped wealthy women 1882 Married Women’s Property Act –Ended coverture Women could sue and be sued Women liable for their own debts –gave married women full property rights

7. Formation of Marriage Later Middle Ages –Marriage regulated by church –Pope Alexander III (late 12 th century) decreed that marriage formed by free consent of man and woman Parental consent not necessary Consummation not necessary Woman’s consent central Publicity not necessary –No need for priest, witnesses or church Early Modern –Lack of publicity requirements caused “clandestine marriage” problem –Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1753) Marriage must be solemnized in church Banns. Marriage plans must be announced in church for three weeks before marriage ceremony Parental consent is necessary if either husband or wife under 21

8. Divorce Later Middle Ages –Divorce & annulment Divorce = modern separation –No right to remarry –Only right to maintain separate residences and refused marital relations –Available only if husband was physically cruel Annulment = modern divorce –Right to remarry –Available only if marriage invalid, not if marriage breaks down –Grounds for annulment »Incest. Marriage within prohibited degrees »Impotence »Coerced consent Early modern – Parliament could grant divorce with right to remarry in individual cases Very expensive (e.g. L500 in mid-19 th century) Only if spouse had committed adultery So rich could get modern divorce, but poor could not

9. Marriage & Divorce Reform Possibility of civil marriage, without participation of religious authority (1836) Divorce for cause (1857-1969) –1857 Statute Man could get divorce if wife committed adultery Woman could get divorce only if husband committed adultery AND cruelty or desertion de facto divorce by mutual consent –Because parties who wanted divorce would not contest adultery –1923. Equality between men & women Requirement for cruelty or desertion removed –1935. Adultery OR cruelty OR desertion as grounds for divorce 1969 Divorce if “marriage breakdown” Divorce granted right to subsequent civil marriage, but not marriage in Church of England

10. Women’s Suffrage Suffrage movement –National movement for women to vote founded in 1872 –Initially moderate, but turned more radical over time Stone throwing, window smashing, hunger strikes in prison –World War I manpower shortage led to women doing traditionally male jobs And thus changed perception of women –1918 statute. Women over 30 get right to vote under certain conditions (e.g. head of propertied household, married to propertied man, university graduate) Also gave right to vote to all males 21 or older Women were 43% of electorate –Would have been more than half, if all women over 21 could vote Women also got right to be members of Parliament –1928. All women over 21 could vote

11. Women, Employment & Education Equal Pay Act 1970 –equal pay for same or similar work Sex Discrimination Act 1975 –makes discrimination against women or men, including discrimination on the grounds of marital status, illegal in the workplace. Also in Education and business –Enforced primarily by Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), not individual suits