Sources on history, philosophy and law are listed here.

• FW Maitland, "Such is the unity of all history that any one who endeavours to tell a piece of it must feel that his first sentence tears a seamless web." ^[1]

Ancient world

Greece

• Trial of Socrates and Socrates (469BC-399BC)
  • Plato (428BC-348BC) and Xenophon's version; Aristophanes and The Clouds
  • Herodotus (484BC-425BC) the "father of history" and The Histories, with Persian autocracy and Greek democracy
  • Thales and ancient philosophy; Pythagoras; Democritus (460BC-370BC) and atoms
  • Pericles (495-429BC) and his funeral oration, recorded by Thuycidides in the History of the Peloponnesian War
  • Sophocles (496-406BC), Antigone (442BC) natural law, civil disobedience
  • Plato's Crito

• Plato's The Republic - and previous legal systems, eg Codex Hammurabi
  • Philosopher King and quis custodiet ipsos custodes
  • The Laws and "what is law"? Also, terminological inexactitude, "In this discordant and inconsistent fashion does the language of the many rend asunder the honourable and just." [In this discordant and inconsistent fashion does the language of the many rend asunder the honourable and just. Book 9, 860]
  • AN Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929) "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."

• Aristotle (384-322BC), Nicomachean Ethics, on the origins of equity and the distinction to law and 1132a-1132b, saying the purpose of justice is to maintain an equilibrium of goods among members of society.^[2]
  • The Politics, on forms of government and the profit motive
  • Rhetoric (Aristotle) (305BC)
• Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC, reigned 336BC-323BC)
  • Stoicism and Hedonism
  • Epicurus (341-270BC) pleasure and pain

Rome

• Roman Republic (509 BC - 27 BC), Twelve Tables (450 BC), Roman law and Roman constitution (which governed all of Europe; the Pyrrhic Victory (280BC), Punic wars (264BC-146BC)
• Cicero (106BC-43BC), Writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero and De Legibus

• Julius Caesar (100BC-44BC), Mark Anthony
  • Virgil (90BC-17BC)
  • List of Asterix volumes

• Augustus (63BC-14AD) and the Roman Empire
  • Tiberius (42BC-37AD), Caligula, Claudius (10BC-54AD) and Nero (35-68) and Great Fire of Rome (64)
  • Seneca the Elder (54BC-39AD) Seneca the Younger (4BC-65AD)
  • Pliny the Elder (23-79)
  • Tacitus (56-117)

• Pax Romana and Five Good Emperors - Nerva (30-98), Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and...
  • Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Meditations
  • See map and Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy, Book I, Chapter 10
  • Epictetus (55-135) and determinism

• Gaius (130-180), Lex est quod populus iubet atque constituit (Institutiones 1.2.3)
  • Law of Citations and Theodosius II in 426
  • Papinian (142-212), Ulpian (d 228, Jus est ars boni et aequi), Paulus (d ca 240) and Modestinus (d ca 250)

Decline and darkness

• Trial of Jesus (33AD), Mark 14:53–65, Matthew 26:57–68, Luke 22:63–71 and John 18:12–24 in the late first century onwards.
  • St Peter's execution in 64AD

• Diocletian (244-311, reigned 284-286, 305)
• Constantine I (282-337), Christianity and the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD
  • Old Saint Peter's Basilica (326AD)

• St Augustine of Hippo and The City of God (ca 410 AD), explaining pursuit of virtue in the afterlife; and the concept of a just war (recognisable goal, proportionate) shortly after the sack of Rome (410) and the fall of the Western Empire in 476.

• Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis (529) and Institutes
  • Hagia Sophia (532AD) and from 529AD, closing the philosophy schools as pagan and contrary to Christianity

• History of the Roman Catholic Church and Augustine of Canterbury (530-604)
• Heraclius adopts Greek as the first language for the Byzantine Empire in 610 and the Dark Ages ensue
• Muhammad (570-632) sees the Angel Gabriel in 610, beginning the revelation of the Qu'ran
• Charlemagne, crowned by Pope Leo III in 800

• Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776, 1906 edn)

Rebirth

High Middle Ages

• William the Conqueror (1066), the Domesday book and the common law
  • Thomas Becket (1118-1170)

• Crusades (1095-1272)
  • the Third Crusade (1187-1192) and King Richard I and the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204)
  • Magna Carta (1215), clause 61 and constitutional government, John of England's signing under duress absolved by Pope Innocent III.
  • the law of trusts and the Lord Chancellor under King Edward I from 1280
  • Lord Mayor of the City of London (elected from 1215), Sir Richard Whittington (ca 1354–1423), Dick Whittington and His Cat, Worshipful Company of Mercers and Livery Companies and usury

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1274) and the lex mercatoria
  • A just price, good faith, etc
  • Dante (1265-1321), Divine Comedy

• Venetian Republic and Marco Polo (1254-1324)

• Black Death, circa 1350
• Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1385) and the General Prologue and The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale

• Islamic jurisprudence and Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

Renaissance

• Dante (1265-1321), Divina Comeedia (1308-1321)
• Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) and humanism
• Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi's competitive tender for the Baptistery bronze doors of Florence Cathedral (1401)

• Reconquista 1238 and 1492
• Hundred Years' War for the French Throne (1337 to 1453)

• Fall of Constantinople (1453)
• Isabella I of Castile, the Spanish Inquisition (1481)
• Christopher Columbus sails to the New World (1492)
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
• Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475)

• Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), The Praise of Folly (1511) and Education of a Christian Prince (1516)
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

• Machiavelli, The Prince (1513, pub 1532)
• Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516)

• Martin Luther (1483-1546) nails demands to the door (1521)

Reformation

• Trial of Sir Thomas More; by Henry VIII under Treason Act 1534 (1535) and Sir Thomas More (play) (1592)

• Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (1470-1538), New Natura Brevium (1534)

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and King Lear
• John Donne (1572-1631) and Meditation XVII
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and the Star Chamber^[3] (1500s-1641)

• Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) and trial by the Pope in the Roman Inquisition
• Sir Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England (1620) and journey on The Mayflower
  • Dr. Bonham's Case (1610) William Aldred's Case (1610), Case of Sutton's Hospital (1612)
  • Gunpowder Plot (1605)

• Thirty Years' War of the Holy Roman Empire and the Peace of Westphalia (1618-1648)

• Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) De jure belli ac pacis (1631) and history of international law and unjust enrichment?
• John Selden (1584-1654) "Equity is a roguish thing."

• Descartes (1596-1650), who trained as a lawyer

• High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I (1649)
• English Civil War (1642), Cromwellian dictatorship (ending 1659)
• John Milton (1608-1674), Areopagitica (1644) defending free expression and Paradise Lost (1667)
• Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (book) (1651)
• Charles II of England's Restoration and the Great Fire of London (1666) and Great Plague of London (1667)

Enlightenment

• Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
• Baruch Spinoza's On the Improvement of the Understanding (1662) and Political Essay (1677)

• Bill of Rights 1689 and Habeas Corpus Act 1679
• The Glorious Revolution (1688) and Parliamentary sovereignty
• John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1689) and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
  • The problem of non-existent rights when too much discretion is given to the sovereign.
• Education Act 1696

• Lord Holt CJ, Turberville v Stampe (1697) 91 ER 1072 (nuisance and vicarious liability), Ashby v White (1703) 2 Ld Raym 938 (the right to vote) and Smith v Gould (1705-07) 2 Salk 666 (antagonism to slavery)
• Act of Union (1707) and Queen Anne's last attempt to interfere with Parliament (1710)

• South Sea Bubble (1719) and Keech v Sandford (1726) 25 ER 223

• Armory v Delamirie (1722) 1 Strange 505

• Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729) here, cf utilitarianism!

• David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book III (1740) and is-ought problem

• Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, De l'Esprit des Lois (1748)
• Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (1754) and The Social Contract
• Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)

• Lord Camden and Entick v Carrington (1765) 95 ER 107
• William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765)
  • ...but keep in mind, colonialism and Doctrine of reception or terra nullius

• Lord Mansfield, Pillans v Van Mierop (consideration), Carter v Boehm (good faith) and Somersett's Case (1772) (slavery)
• William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Modernity

Revolution

• Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution

• US Declaration of Independence (1776)
• Pitt the Elder, John Wilkes speeches; George III of England

• Immanuel Kant, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (1786) and Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1787) and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 42

• French Revolution (1791) and Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (incl progressive income tax)
• Tom Paine, The Rights of Man (1791)
• Jeremy Bentham, Fragment on Government (1776), Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation (1780) and Anarchical Fallacies (1791)

• Industrial Revolution
• Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776) - emphasising economic thinking toward laws

• Marbury v Madison (1810) and the US Constitution

Great Britain

• British Empire and Queen Victoria
• John Austin, The Province of Jurisprudence Determined and the University of London

• David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) and *Thomas Malthus, Essay On Population
  • Corn laws and free trade
  • Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities

• John Stuart Mill
  • Felicific calculus, utilitarianism and happiness
  • Principles of Political Economy (1848) and Utilitarianism (1863), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865), The Subjection of Women (1869) and Chapters on Socialism
  • On Liberty (1859)
• Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859)

• Winterbottom v Wright, Rylands v Fletcher, Bamford v Turnley
• Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 and history of company law
  • Foss v Harbottle, Salomon v A Solomon & Co Ltd
• Freedom of contract, property and the right to vote
  • Hadley v Baxendale, Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co and Herbert Asquith
  • Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning (1842) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1803)

Europe

• Code Napoleon
• Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) Das Recht des Besitzes (1803), System des heutigen Römischen Rechts ([1]) and the University of Berlin (1810)

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1821)
• Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Being Right (1831)

• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Zur Genealogie der Moral, Second Essay
• Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, Otto von Bismarck and the Second Reich (1871)
• Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus (1905), Politik als Beruf (1919) and Economy and Society

America

• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)

• Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War (1865)
  • Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

• Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Common Law and The Path of the Law (1897) 10 Harvard Law Review 457

• History of competition law and antitrust and the Sherman Act

• Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Fundamental Legal Conceptions, As Applied in Judicial Reasoning and Other Legal Essays (1919)

Socialism

• Robert Owen (1771-1858) and A New View Of Society (1813)

• Revolutions of 1848
• Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867), On the Jewish Question
  • Communist Manifesto (1848) whose ten demands were, free primary education, progressive income tax, inheritance tax, government provided transport and communication, nationalisation of banks, a government agricultural plan, (and more radically) a duty of everyone to work, gradually nationalising industry, abolishing private property in land, confiscating emigrants' and rebels' property and distributing the population equally across the country.
• Chartism
• Pierre Proudhon, What Is Property? (1840)
• Income Tax Act 1842

• Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, Ancient Law (1864) and the move from status to contract
• Second Reform Act 1867 debates (1867) and history of democracy
• Elementary Education Act 1870

• Albert Venn Dicey, An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885)
• FW Maitland and Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet, History of English Law before the Time of Edward I
• Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949

• Beatrice Webb and Sidney Webb, History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897)
• Trade Union Act 1871, Trade Disputes Act 1906 and the history of labour law
  • Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426

• Pensions and the National Insurance Act 1911, unemployment benefits.
• Clayton Act of 1914

• Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Theory of Relativity (1905)

Twentieth Century

Apocalypse

• World War One
• Russian Revolution (1917) and Lenin

• International Labour Organisation (1919), the League of Nations, and a new kind of constitutional law
  • Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George

• Great Depression, New Deal
  • John Maynard Keynes, Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)

• Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 and consumer protection

• Adolf Berle, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932)

• Hans Kelsen's Pure Theory of Law (1934)
• Adolf Hitler, Nuremberg Trials and Stalin

Language games

• Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy and positivism
• Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1953)

• Lon Fuller, The Morality of Law (1964)
• HLA Hart's The Concept of Law (1961) and the Hart-Fuller debate (1958)^[4]
• Ronald Dworkin, Law's Empire (1985) a student of both Fuller and Hart.
• Joseph Raz', Ethics in the Public Domain

Post War political philosophy

• Soviet Union and United States of America, communism and capitalism
• Friedrich von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1943)
• Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)
• Isaiah Berlin, 'Two Concepts of Liberty' (1958)

• Welfare State, Beveridge Report

• John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971) and Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (1972)
• Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (1977)
  • Brown v Board of Education, Roe v Wade, Buckley v Valeo, Bush v Gore
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Malcolm X at the Oxford Union debate
  • South Africa and apartheid

• John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights
• Joseph Raz, Authority of Law (1979)

• Jürgen Habermas
• Michel Foucault (on postmodernism)

• Ronald Coase, Richard Posner, Paul Samuelson, Kenneth Arrow etc

The globalisation context

• United Nations, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank

• John Maynard Keynes, World Trade Organisation^[5]
• EU law and the Treaty of Rome (1952), Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen [1963] ECR 1 and the common agricultural policy
• European Convention on Human Rights

• OPEC, Milton Friedman, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and the failure of Bretton Woods
  • Mitbestimmungsgesetz Urteil BVerGE 50, 290, Bullock Report (1977)
  • Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1, Pepper v Hart [1993] AC 593

• Amartya Sen, Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz

• Cold War, Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall

• Patrick Atiyah, The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract (1979)
• Where will things go next?