Bracton, Henry de, d. 1268, English writer on law. He was the author of De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae [on the laws and customs of England], a broad, philosophic treatise that is often called the most important work on English law before that of Sir William Blackstone. Sir Edward Coke and others used the work in their legal arguments against the king in the English civil war.
See edition of De legibus by G. E. Woodbine (4 vol., 1915–42); edition of Bracton's notebook by F. W. Maitland (3 vol., 1887).
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