About the Selden Society
F. W. Maitland
The Selden Society was founded in 1887 by Frederic William Maitland 'to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of English Law'. It publishes annual volumes of source materials such as law reports, court records and other professional literature. In each case the text is provided with a translation, if the original is Latin or French, and with full indices and other apparatus. The introductions to these volumes comprise a substantial proportion of the research done in modern times on the history of the common law; and they and the materials themselves are important for social, economic, constitutional, and linguistic historians, as well as for students of local and family history.
The latest annual volume is The Reports of William Dalison, 1552-1558, volume 124 (2007). In the press is the volume for 2008: Irish Exchequer Reports 1716-34. This is the first time that the Society has gone outside England and Wales but Ireland was then united to the crown of England and appeals from its courts came to Westminster, so it belonged to the same legal regime as England.
A full list of Selden Society office-bearers and contacts is available on the US website. For further information about the Society and its programs, see the UK website.
Selden Society - Australia
After ten years of service as Secretary - Treasurer of the Australian division of the Selden Society, Professor Michael Bryan (University of Melbourne Law School) resigned from this position in 2008. To succeed him, the Council of the Society has appointed Mr Aladin Rahemtula, Supreme Court Librarian, Brisbane. Any queries regarding Australian memberships and subscriptions should now be directed to Aladin.
Annual General Meetings of the Queensland chapter of the Selden Society have been held in Brisbane since 1989. Each year, a guest speaker is invited to deliver a paper on a topic relating to Australian or English legal history. A collection of these papers, dating from 1989 to 2004, was published by the Supreme Court of Queensland Library in a volume entitled Table Talk of the Selden Society.
For further information about the Australian division of the Selden Society, please contact:
Aladin RahemtulaSupreme Court of Queensland Library
PO Box 15019
CITY EAST QLD 4002
AUSTRALIA
+61 7 3247 4373
+61 7 3247 9233
ala...@sclqld.org.au