Právněhistorické studie / Legal History Studies (Charles University journal; below referred to as PHS or Journal) is a scientific journal listed in the international prestigious database SCOPUS. The journal is published by Charles University in Prague under the guarantee of the Department of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. It is published by the Karolinum Press. The journal focuses on the field of legal history and related topics.
Issue 1 of the Journal was published by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences Publishing in June 1955. The Journal was initially published by the Cabinet of Legal History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (CSAV), later by the Institute of State and Law (CSAV) and then by the Institute of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Charles University.
PHS is issued three times a year in April, August, and December and it presents original scientific works/papers as well as reviews, annotations and news from the scientific field of legal history. It also introduces annotated texts of a legal history nature. PHS accepts manuscripts from domestic as well as foreign authors. Manuscripts submitted by foreign authors are published in original language, namely in English, Slovak, German, French, Italian or Polish.
PHS (ISSN 0079-4929) is registered in the Czech national ISSN centre (supervised by the State Technical Library). The Journal is registered by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic according to Act No. 46/2000 Sb., on Rights and Liabilities for the Publishing of Periodicals and Change of Some Acts (Press Act), and it is allocated with registration number of periodical press MK E 18813.
PHS is an open journal and ensures open access to scientific data (Open Access). The entire content is released as open to the public on the web pages of the journal.
The journal is archived in Portico.
PRÁVNĚHISTORICKÉ STUDIE, Vol 56 No 1 (2026), 153–181
ArticleArgumenty příznivců a odpůrců návrhů zákona o majetku vdaných žen v Anglii 1855–1882
[Arguments of Supporters and Opponents of the Married Women’s Property Bills in England 1855–1882]
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/2464689X.2026.194
published online: 22. 04. 2026
abstract
The article deals with reform initiatives aimed at changing the legal status of married women in the period from the mid-1850s, when the first coordinated efforts to gain more property rights for married women began, to the enactment of the first Married Women’s Property Act 1870 and the second Married Women’s Property Act 1882, which represented significant milestones in the women’s emancipation movement. The aim of the article is to analyze the range of legal, social, economic, ethical, and religious arguments supporting a change in the existing legal status; the views of opponents of the proposed laws on married women’s property will also be taken into account.
keywords: property rights; women’s rights; married women’s property; Victorian England
references (51)
1. [ATKINSON, A.]. The Economic Foundations of the Women's Movement. London: The Fabian Society, 1914.
2. [CORNWALLIS, F. C.]. The Property of Married Women: Report of the Personal Laws Committee (of the Law Amendment Society) on the Laws Relating to the Property of Married Women. In: The Westminster Review, July-October 1856, New Series Vol. 10.
3. [Red.] The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine: Practical Information, Instruction & Amusement, 1852, Vol. 1.
4. [TAYLOR, H.]. The Ladies' Petition: Petition presented to the House of Commons by Mr. J. Stuart Mill. In: The Westminter Review, January-April 1867, New Series Vol. 31, 1868.
5. BAKER, J. An Introduction to English Legal History. 5th Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. CrossRef
6. BAŽANTOVÁ, E. Emancipační hnutí žen ve Velké Británii od 60. let do 80. let 19. století. Diplomová práce. Praha: Univerzita Karlova 2023.
7. BAŽANTOVÁ, E. Počátky hnutí za získání ženského volebního práva ve Velké Británii v druhé polovině 60. let 19. století. Právněhistorické studie, 2022, roč. 52, č. 3. CrossRef
8. BAŽANTOVÁ, E. The Movement for Changing the Property Laws of Married Women in England, 1856-1870. In: TAUCHEN, J. - KOLUMBER, D. (eds.). Edge of tomorrow 2: The next generation of legal historians and Romanists: Collection of Contributions from the 2024 International Legal History Meeting of PhD Students. Brno: Muni Press, 2024. CrossRef
9. BESSANT, A. Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be: A Plea for Reform. London: Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh, 1878.
10. BLACKBURN, H. Women's Suffrage: a Record of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the British Isles. London: Williams & Norgate, 1902.
11. BLACKSTONE, W. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Book the first. 9th Edition. London: W. Strahan, 1783.
12. BOARDMAN, K. The Ideology of Domesticity: The Regulation of the Household Economy in Victorian Women's Magazines. In: Victorian Periodicals Review, 2000, Vol. 33, No. 2.
13. BODICHON SMITH LEIGH, B. A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women. London: John Chapman, 1854.
14. CLEVELAND RACKHAM, A. Woman Under the English Law from the Landing of the Saxons to the Present Time. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1896.
15. COBBE, F. P. Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors. Is the classification sound? A discussion on the Laws concerning the Property of the Married Women. Manchester: A. Ireland &Co., 1869.
16. DICEY, A. V. Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century. London: Macmillan, 1914.
17. ELIOT, H. S. R. (ed.) The Letters of John Stuart Mill. Vol. 1, London: Longmans, Green and Company 1910.
18. ERIKSON, A. L. Women and Property in Early Modern England. London-New York: Routledge, 2003. CrossRef
19. GOLDMAN, L. Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian Britain: The Social Science Association 1857-1886. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
20. GRIFFIN, B. The Politics of Gender in Victorian Britain: Masculinity, Political Culture and the Struggle for Women's Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. CrossRef
21. HASTINGS WOODYATT, G. (ed.). Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of the Social Science: Belfast Meeting 1867. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1868.
22. HIGGS, E. Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses. In: History Workshop Journal, 1987, Vol. 23, No. 1. CrossRef
23. HOBHOUSE, A. On the Forfeiture of property by Married Women. Reprinted from the Fortnightly Review, with an Appendix. Manchester: A. Ireland & Co., 1870.
24. HOLCOMBE, L. Wives and Property: Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1983. CrossRef
25. KUKLÍK, J. Poodhalené tváře anglického práva. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2013.
26. LAWRENCE, B. E. History of the Laws Affecting the Property of Married Women in England. London: Reeves & Turner 1884.
27. LEWIS, J. Women in England 1870-1950: Sexual Divisions and Social Change. Brighton: Wheatsheaf books, 1986.
28. LIESHOUT VAN, C. - SMITH, H. - MONTEBRUNO, P. - BENNETT, R. Female entrepreneurship: Business, Marriage and Motherhood in England and Wales, 1851-1911. In: Social History, 2019, Vol. 44, No. 4. CrossRef
29. LOEB, L. A. Consuming Angels: Advertising and Victorian Women. New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. CrossRef
30. MILL, J. S. - [TAYLOR, H.]. Enfranchisement of Women. Reprinted from the Westminster Review, July, 1851. London: Trübner and Co., 1868.
31. MILL, J. S. The Subjection of Women. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1869. CrossRef
32. MOZLEY, H. The Property Disabilities of a Married Woman, and Other Legal Effects of Marriage. In: BUTLER, J. (ed.). Woman's Work and Woman's Culture. London: Macmillan and Co., 1869.
33. MURDOCH, L. Daily Life of Victorian Women. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 2014. CrossRef
34. NORTON, C. English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century. London: Printed For Private Circulation, 1854.
35. PARKERS RAYNER, B. The Laws Relating to the Property of Married Women. In: The Leader, 14 February 1857.
36. PERKIN, J. Women and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century England. London: Routledge, 1989.
37. RODGERS, B. The Social Science Association, 1857-1886. The Manchester School, 1952, Vol. 20., No. 3. CrossRef
38. SEVERNS, R. Nineteenth Century Equity. A Study in Law Reform. Part I. In: The Chicago-Kent Law Review, 1934, Vol. 12, No. 2.
39. SEVERNS, R. Nineteenth Century Equity. A Study in Law Reform. Part II. In: The Chicago-Kent Law Review, 1935, Vol. 13, No. 4.
40. SEWELL, S. A. Woman and the Times We Live In. 2. vydání. Manchester - London: Tubbs and Brook, 1869.
41. SHANLEY, L. M. Feminism, Marriage and Law in Victorian England. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989. CrossRef
42. STRACHEY, R. The Cause: A Short History of the Women's Movement in Great Britain. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1928.
43. The Public General Acts Passed in the Forty-Fifth and Forty-Sixth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, London 1882.
44. The Public General Acts Passed in the Fourty-Fourth and Forty-Fifth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, London 1881.
45. The Public General Statutes Passed in the Fifty-Sixth and Fifty-Seventh Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, London 1894.
46. The Public General Statutes Passed in the Thirty-Fourth Years of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, London 1870.
47. TINKOVÁ, D. "Oddělené sféry" - tradiční polarita nebo dědictví 19. století? In: ŘEPA, M. (ed.). 19. století v nás: Modely, instituce a reprezentace, které přetrvaly. Praha: Historický ústav AV ČR, 2008.
48. TOSH, J. A Man's Place: Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England. New Haven - London: Yale University Press, 2007.
49. Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of the Social Science: Edinburgh Meeting 1880. London 1881.
50. United Kingdom, House of Commons, 3rd Series
51. WILLIAMS, J. The Great Miss Lydia Becker: Suffragist, Scientist & Trailblazer. Yorkshire - Philadelphia: Pen & Sword History, 2022.

Argumenty příznivců a odpůrců návrhů zákona o majetku vdaných žen v Anglii 1855–1882 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
170 x 240 mm
periodicity: 3 x per year
print price: 250 czk
ISSN: 0079-4929
E-ISSN: 2464-689X
