ABSTRACT
According to the first Statute of Westminster, the law was administered that the peace of the land might be maintained in all points, and common right be done to all. The radical Norman Yoke theorists were to challenge the very basis of this doctrine, but even among more conformist thinkers in the early seventeenth century, the principle that the laws of England were beneficent was often accepted only with considerable qualification. In this period, recognizances were widely used in proceedings against criminals and other malefactors, and those which were certified to Wiltshire quarter sessions have survived. Moreover, the conditions of life in small communities probably helped to shield local people from the strict legal consequences of certain types of illegal behaviour. A court baron could function not only as customary court dealing with matters of tenure among the copyholders, but also as common law tribunal; and some manorial courts were still serving as forum for civil suits in this period.
