Henry James Sumner Maine
Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, KCSI (15 August 1822 – 3 February 1888), was an English comparative jurist and historian. He is famous for the thesis outlined in Ancient Law that law and society developed "from status to contract." According to the thesis, in the ancient world individuals were tightly bound by status to traditional groups, while in the modern one, in which individuals are viewed as autonomous agents, they are free to make contracts and form associations with whomever they choose. Because of this thesis, Maine can be seen as one of the forefathers of modern sociology of law.
Read more about Henry James Sumner Maine: Early Life, In India, Oxford Professor, Death, Works
Famous quotes containing the words james, sumner and/or maine:
“So far as I am concerned, dear, I promise you that very soon Ill settle down again and write another long three-volume novel, suitable for the most genteel of young women.”
—Jan Read. Robert Day. James Rankin (Boris Karloff)
“through the Sumner Tunnel,
trunk by trunk through its sulphurous walls,
tile by tile like a mens urinal,
slipping through
like somebody elses package.”
—Anne Sexton (19281974)
“On a late-winter evening in 1983, while driving through fog along the Maine coast, recollections of old campfires began to drift into the March mist, and I thought of the Abnaki Indians of the Algonquin tribe who dwelt near Bangor a thousand years ago.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)