The Inner Temple Yearbook 2021–2022
The History Society Review
THE HISTORY SOCIETY REVIEW By the Archivist
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The History Society has thrived in the time of COVID-19. Thanks to technology and the rise of online events, it has adapted perfectly to the ‘new normal’ and attracted a large global audience to its webinars, which were broadcast this year. Online events have also allowed the Inn to invite lecturers from as far afield as the US. The History Society was delighted to welcome Professor Tidmarsh of Notre Dame Law School to its first online History Society event, which was also the inaugural joint Inns of Court Selden Society Lecture, an annual event which will alternate between the four Inns of Court. The Fire Courts: Successfully Delivering Justice in a Time of Plague and Fire lecture examined the role of the ‘fire courts,’ which parliament established to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants in urban areas destroyed in catastrophic fires. The Inner Temple was almost completely destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, which took place in September during the summer vacation when many of its residents were absent. The Great Fire of London destroyed a total of 426 acres of London, a vast number of houses – only four were left standing on Fleet Street – and tens of thousands of people were made homeless. Eight of the 22 fire court judges were members of the Inner Temple and they sat in the hall of the Inner Temple’s Clifford’s Inn to hear the huge quantity of disputes. During its first year, the fire court was in session for 120 days, hearing 374 disputes, inspired by the decree to “promote the rebuilding of the city”. One of the fire courts’ most remarkable features was the delegation of authority to judges to adjudicate disputes without juries. The lecture explored the social and economic impact of the Great Fire and explained how a six-section Act of Parliament erected a novel fire court to cut a path through the tsunami of legal disputes that threatened the rebuilding of London, and played a central role in the City’s redevelopment. The lecture explored lessons for modern times and the circumstances under which government intervention can foster resilience, in particular the ways in which the judiciary can be a key partner in recovery from disaster. The global audience for this lecture included legal scholars, the public, and members of the Bar. 88
The second lecture was wonderfully organised by our former Treasurer Master Donald Cryan on the topic of Law in a Time of Plague: Is the Law a Good Doctor?, with Professor Sir John Baker QC (Emeritus Downing Professor Emeritus of the Laws of England 1998–2011 and Inner Temple Bencher) and Professor John Wass (Professor of Endocrinology, University of Oxford, and Inner Temple Bencher) in conversation with His Honour Donald Cryan (former Treasurer of the Inner Temple). The lecture examined the nature of the plagues that have beset this country both from a medical point of view, as brilliantly evoked by Master John Wass, and the law’s response to the plague, as explained by Master John Baker. One felt grateful that one was not alive in the 16th century when some local authorities took stringent measures to ensure that plague victims did not infect others, in some cases even ordering offenders to be shot. In 1518, plague-ridden Londoners were required to put a bundle of straw on a ten-foot pole outside a house, which was altered in 1547 to the now familiar cross, and anyone leaving such a house was to carry a four-footlong white wand. In the 1550s, pesthouses were set up on the outskirts of towns to quarantine infected people and, in 1578, houses infected by plague were to be closed for six weeks. The wealthier members of the population as largely represented here and at other institutions, such as Oxford and Cambridge, were able to retire to safe country retreats, and it was the poor who bore the brunt of this most stringent legislation.
The lecture examined the nature of the plagues that have beset this country both from a medical point of view, as brilliantly evoked by Master John Wass, and the law’s response to the plague, as explained by Master John Baker.
