‘True English growth, and manufactur’d here’: the ‘Englishness’ of arbitration, c.1700-1850

Speaker: Francis Boorman (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies)

The observation was made repeatedly over several centuries that arbitration, the settlement of disputes outside of court and with a party-appointed umpire, was uniquely suited to the English character; it appealed to such traits as their ‘peaceableness’, innate sense of fairplay and straight dealing. This paper examines the meaning of these claims in the context of the widespread use of arbitration and its place in a constellation of roles associated with the citizenship and independence of (mostly male) heads of household, such as serving on a jury, executing a will or standing as surety. Acting as an arbitrator was a marker of honour, good reputation or character. The relationship of the English to arbitration is confused by similar claims to the ‘Englishness’ of the rule of law. What is more, those claims about law, arbitration and national character have been presented as both mutually supportive and in direct conflict. Arbitration was attacked as arbitrary and tyrannical (essentially ‘foreign’ characteristics, or worse, French), in contrast with the right to trial by jury of one’s peers. Conversely, litigiousness and the legal profession were sometimes argued to be essentially un-English, with lawyers presented as leeches or even devils. Arbitrators, meanwhile, were seen as pacific and civically virtuous.

This paper will trace claims about the ‘Englishness’ of arbitration through the long eighteenth century and unpick the various meanings ascribed to arbitration and the law, by positioning them within patriotic and political rhetoric. It will consider the language of English exceptionalism when set against British or imperial identities. It will also consider historic claims of the ‘Englishness’ of arbitration in the light of recent arguments that arbitration may be an institutional factor behind the unique economic and technological development of the Industrial Revolution.

IHR Seminar Series: British History in the Long 18th Century