1. The study of cases -- 2. Politics and law in Elizabethan England: Shelley's Case (1581) -- 3. The timeless principles of the common law: Keeble v. Hickeringill (1707) -- 4. Legal science and legal absurdity: Jee v. Audley (1787) -- 5. A case of first impression: Priestley v. Fowler (1837) -- 6. The beauty of obscurity: Raffles v. Wichelhaus and Busch (1864) -- 7. Victorian judges and the problem of social cost: Tipping v. St. Helen's Smelting Company (1865) -- 8. Bursting reservoirs and Victorian tort law: Rylands and Horrocks v. Fletcher (1868) -- 9. The ideal of the rule of law: Regina v. Keyn (1876) -- 10. Quackery and contract law: Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company (1893)
Summary
A collection of cases in common law, centred upon the theme of the judgment establishing a long-lasting or far-reaching precedent. The cases were selected in order to illustrate how the precedents established had little or nothing to do with the trials themselves
