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:
“The difference between objective and subjective extension is one of relation to a context solely.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“through the Sumner Tunnel,
trunk by trunk through its sulphurous walls,
tile by tile like a men’s urinal,
slipping through
like somebody else’s package.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Making a logging-road in the Maine woods is called “swamping” it, and they who do the work are called “swampers.” I now perceived the fitness of the term. This was the most perfectly swamped of all the roads I ever saw. Nature must have coöperated with art here.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)