7 - The Sheriff and the Common Law: 1188–1230

Summary

From 1188 to 1230, the royal jurisdiction in England had fully absorbed the multiple local jurisdictions through a series of judicial procedures, such as the general eyre, the writ system, and the jury system. In the course of this process, the sheriff became an indispensable communicator and mediator between the royal court and the people. He not only carried out the king's will to the local society, but also conveyed the complaints of the local people to the royal court. At the same time, local people began to participate formally in the common law judicial process to check the jurisdictional authority of the sheriffs and lords. Therefore, a dual system of governance was gradually formed in English society, that is, a common law judicial system consisting of a top-down system of royal inspection and a bottom-up system of local participation. The sheriff was the key element in establishing this dual governance system. Based on the sheriff's judicial functions, the royal jurisdiction gradually expanded into this common law judicial system. The system of bottom-up local participation developed into ‘embedded local jurisdiction’, which ultimately shaped the development of common law. Therefore, we must not underestimate the importance of the sheriff in the formation and development of the common law. This paper explores the importance of the sheriff in this regard.

Legal historians see the judicial role of the sheriff as being diminished by the early Angevin reforms of King Henry II. The scholar who best represents this school of thought is William Morris, who explored the role of the sheriff subordinate to the justices in the king's court. In particular, the new writ system removed most cases from the sheriff's jurisdiction to the royal justices, but gave the sheriff many new executive duties to help the king's court run. Paul Brand observes that the county courts began to become integrated into the national court system, with the sheriff and the county courts gradually controlled by royal writs. Robert Palmer recognises that the county courts were acting as courts of the common law through dealing with the viscontiel writs that initiate litigation before the sheriff in county courts. David Carpenter, furthermore, points out that the social status of sheriffs began to decline from 1194, along with the diminution of the county courts. By the 1230s, sheriffs began to act like local officials and were appointed by the king from professional administrators and knights.