Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

leges Henrici

n. [Latin] Hist. A book anonymously written between 1114 and 1118 containing Anglo-Saxon and Norman law. * The book lends insight to the period before the full development of Norman law in England. - Also termed leges Henrici Primi "Closely connected with the Quadripartitus is a far more important book, the so-called Leges Henrici. It seems to have been compiled shortly before the year 1118. After a brief preface, it gives us Henry's coronation charter (this accounts for the name which has unfortunately been given in modern days to the whole book), and then the author makes a gallant, if forlorn, attempt to state the law of England. At first sight the outcome seems to be a mere jumble of fragments But the more closely we examine the book, the more thoroughly convinced we shall be that its author has undertaken a serious task in a serious spirit; he means to state the existing law of the land 1 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 99 (2d ed. 1898).