A History Society Review

THE INNER TEMPLE HISTORY SOCIETY REVIEW

By Master Donald Cryan

The Inner Temple had, to a large extent, neglected its own history and even its own archives until the closing decades of the last century, when, guided by Professor Sir John Baker QC, Master Baker, the country’s pre-eminent legal historian, it began to gather its archives in a central location and to employ an archivist. Largely through Master Baker, articles on our history and the history of the profession began to appear in The Inner Temple Yearbooks. But still there was no formal history society and no regular series of talks on historical matters related to the Inn or legal history.

It was not until shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic that The Inner Temple History Society was formed, and it has continued to thrive throughout it. Since the start of the pandemic, the talks have gone online and attendances have greatly increased and have become international in their reach, with particular interest being shown by members of the American Inns of Court and the Selden Society. Attendances, which before the pandemic had been counted in the seventies and eighties, are now in the hundreds. As the impact of the pandemic has faded, it has been possible to have in-person attendance, but the benefits of live streaming and recording have not been lost and will continue.

The Society’s talks are aimed at all those with an interest in the history of the Inn, its members and legal history. As might be expected of an institution which, through itself or its members, has been involved in most of the turbulent events of our history and which has bred some of the greatest advocates and jurist of the Common Law over nearly 700 years, there is much to be said. The reach of the talks has become international, enhancing the standing and reputation of the Inn as a place of interest and learning. Going forward, through the Inn’s new superb teaching and training facilities it will be able to use the state-of-the-art lecture theatre and online streaming ability. The post-talk receptions will be held in the new reception area with its unique setting.

As things began to open up, the History Society itself in a way became part of history. It held a lecture on 10 May 2022, the 100th anniversary of the Call of the first woman to the Bar of England and Wales, Dr Ivy Williams. It was attended by the Inn’s Treasurer, Her Honour Judge Deborah Taylor, and a raft of women judges from the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Circuit Bench together with many of the Inn’s women Queen’s Counsel and barristers. The Inn was able to record the course of history for future generations. The speaker was Dr Frances Burton who, as a young undergraduate at St Ann’s College Oxford in the early 1960s, had been introduced to Dr Ivy Williams and so in that way also the event touched history.

Shortly before the Ivy Williams talk, Professor Michelle O’Callaghan had delivered a talk entitled Crashawe’s Library and the Circulation of Books in the Seventeenth Century. It gave a vivid picture of the life of the Inn in one of its most dynamic periods when Crashawe, as Master of the Temple Church, had both Sir Edward Coke and John Selden as his parishioners, and the struggle between the crown and parliament over the interwoven issues of politics and religion, royal and parliamentary power were becoming heated.

Professor O’Callaghan’s talk had followed on from a talk by Master Baker, hosted by the Inn entitled John Selden and Legal History “Liberty Above All Things”. It is reproduced in this year’s Yearbook. That talk was in the annual Selden Society and Four Inns of Court lecture series. The series has become an important part of the History Society’s calendar. During the pandemic The Inner Temple hosted two of them. They have attracted very large audiences with attendance on four continents.

On 1 November 2022, the next talk in the joint series is to take place at the Middle Temple, but The Inner Temple will be fully engaged. As with the other talks, the topic will demonstrate the relevance of legal history to the issues of today. It will focus on aspects of our constitution. The speaker, Lord Judge, the former Lord Chief Justice and the current Convener of the Crossbench Peers entitled his talk, 1622, the King’s Prerogative – 2022, the Prime Minister’s Prerogative. Continuing Constitutional Turbulence and it is bound to attract great interest.

In recent times it has become apparent that the dissolution of parliament is always a critical moment in our democracy. Who should have the power to dissolve parliament? How should it be exercised? During the passage of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, Lord Judge said:

“We have become habituated – have we not – to the steady, apparently unstoppable accumulation of power in No 10 Downing Street, and we have done so while simultaneously the authority and weight of parliament itself, and the House of Commons in particular, have been diminishing. It is astonishing to think that we are now proposing to resurrect the medieval concept of the prerogative, the concept on which the divine right of kings was based. King James and King Charles, just across the road, will be laughing as they turn in their graves. The King lost his head in part because he kept dissolving parliament.”

In and around 1622, the early Stuart kings asserted the divine right of kings and the dispensability of parliament, but over the centuries the sovereignty of parliament has triumphed as the fundamental principle of our unwritten constitution. Lord Judge will address the steady accumulation and use of political and prerogative powers by prime ministers in the context of the actions of the early Stuart kings and the views of Coke and Selden.

Before that talk, on 10 October 2022, at a time when historic and modern slavery are the subject of so much topical interest, Sir Michael Tugendhat (Master Tugendhat), author of The Rights of Mankind: Liberty in France and England (1159–1793), will speak of the disappearance of slavery, as a legally recognised status, in Northern France and England around the 13th century, and how that momentous development gave rise to the legal recognition of equality, liberty, and other human rights, and inspired the eventual abolition of slavery worldwide in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Next year, I and Richard Parsons, the Inn’s long-standing adviser on its silver collection, will start the year’s programme with a talk on The History of the Inn in Ten Objects.

Please watch out for further information on the Inn’s website. Some of the events carry a modest charge to cover the cost of the reception and all of them require registration whether you want to attend online or in person.

His Honour Donald Cryan

Chair of the History Society History Society talks innertemple.org.uk/historylectures