Maitland: State, Trust and Corporation

The essays collected in State, Trust and Corporation contain the reflections of England's greatest legal historian on the legal, historical and philosophical origins of the idea of the state. All written in the first years of the twentieth century, Maitland's essays are classics both of historical writing and of political theory. They contain a series of profound insights into the way the character of the state has been shaped by the non-political associations that exist alongside it, and their themes are of continuing relevance today. This is the first new edition of these essays for sixty years, and the first of any kind to contain full translations, glossary and expository introduction. It has been designed to make Maitland's writings fully accessible to the non-specialist, and to make available to anyone interested in the idea of the state some of the most important modern writings in English on that subject.

'… interesting and relevant for political theorists.' Political Studies Review, 'This delightful collection of essays in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series is warmly to be welcomed. The effect is impressive. The book sheds considerable light on Maitland's interest in groups and its significance for political theorists and historians of political thought, in particular. The Cambridge edition is as much a tribute to the editors' erudition as it is to Maitland's. The greatly improved accessibility of all the essays is a boon to those interested in questions of law and the state, liberty and groups, and the adaptation of legal theory to life, in a historical and contemporary context.' History of Political Thought

Frederic William Maitland (1850–1906): late Downing Professor of the Laws of England in the University of Cambridge, arguably the greatest of all British historians, and a major voice in political theory. David Runciman is a university Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Cambridge and author of Pluralism and the Personality of the State (Cambridge University Press, 1997). Magnus Ryan is a lecturer in Late Medieval Studies at the Warburg Institute, London, and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.