Recombinant Novelty in Early-Modern English Caselaw

The production of novel combinations—recombinant novelty—is a primary source of innovation, providing the variation that drives evolutionary change. Using computational methods to measure departures from prior patterns, we analyze the recombination of conceptual categories in reported legal cases from England’s superior courts, 1540–1764. Caselaw provides a particularly useful setting because it formed a foundational element of England’s institutional structure during this period. Our algorithm identifies novel pairings of discrete legal topics within case reports, assigning higher novelty scores to reports containing more new, and unexpected, pairings. We find that the late Elizabethan (1588–1603) and Restoration (1660–1685) periods exhibited the highest rates of recombinant novelty. Equity courts accounted for approximately half of novelty in the century preceding the Industrial Revolution, providing quantitative evidence on the relative importance of equity alongside common law. Our analysis of individual judges and reporters shows that Edward Coke was not a major contributor to recombinant novelty. Novel cases received increased citations only after substantial delay, suggesting that citation-based measures date legal change later than approaches based on recombinant novelty. These findings inform debates about England’s institutional transformation, the role of legal origins, and methods for quantifying historical trajectories.