Maine, Sir Henry James Sumner, 1822-1888 : Sir Henry Maine was a British comparative jurist and legal historian.
He was appointed regius professor of civil law in 1847 and held this chair until 1854. He was called to the bar three years later. In 1856, he contributed to the Cambridge
essays on Roman law and legal education. Meanwhile, he had become one of the readers appointed by the Inns of Court in 1852 for purposes of providing legal education. This work prepared Maine for his seminal book on ancient law.
In Ancient Law: Its Connections with the Early History of Society and Its Relation to Modern Ideas, published in 1861 in London, England, Maine identified the process by which the individual moved from the concept of status to contract in terms of private law. In the eighteenth century and earlier, the individual was regarded as a status bound being in private law. They were recognized as having specific roles in society which were directed by social and political organization rather than by personal volition, e.g., serf, aristocrat, labourer, professional, etc. This concept of the individual as status bound endured until the end of the eighteenth century. By 1850, however, private law is beginning to recognize individuals as valuable in and of themselves inherently. Because of this shift away from status, contract law and contracts between contracting, autonomous individuals becomes a reality. Maine's thesis made him a major nineteenth century legal historian on British civil law.
Shortly thereafter, he was offered the post of legal member of council in India. During his stay in India which ended in 1869, he advised the government of India on political and legal matters and was largely responsible for beginning the process of codification of India's laws, a process which was implemented by Maine's successors, Sir James F. Stephen and Dr. Whitley Stokes.
In 1869, he was appointed to the chair of historical and comparative jurisprudence at Oxford University and wrote other works on ancient societies. In 1877, he accepted the mastership of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 1887, he succeeded Sir William Harcourt as Whewell professor of international law at Cambridge University. A posthumous volume on international law was published in 1888. In 1885, he published his one work of speculative politics, a volume of essays on Popular Government.
He married Jane Maine, had two sons, and died on 3 February 1888.
