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The Commentaries on the Laws of England is an influential 18th century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford, 1765-1769. Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked... Sir William Blackstone, (July 10, 1723 – February 14, 1780) was an English jurist and professor who produced the historical treatise on the common law called Commentaries on the Laws of England, first published in four volumes over 1765–1769. ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... 1765 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. It was in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law, suitable for a lay readership, since at least the Middle Ages. The common law of England, relying on precedent more than on statutes and codifications, was far less susceptible than the civil law developed from Roman law to the needs of a writer of a treatise. It was influential largely because it was in fact readable, and because the work met a need. The work is as much an apologia for the legal system of the time as it is an explanation of it; even when the law was obscure, Blackstone always sought to make it seem rational, just, and inevitable that things should be exactly how they were. Precedent, sometimes authority, is the legal principle or rule created by a court which guides judges in subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. ... A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published. ... Civil law has at least three meanings. ... Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. ...

The Commentaries are frequently quoted as the definitive pre-Revolutionary War source of Common Law by US courts; in particular, the United States Supreme Court quotes from Blackstone's work whenever they wish to engage in historical discussion that goes back that far, or further (for example, when discussing the intent of the Framers of the Constitution). The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Founding Fathers of the United States, also known to some Americans as the Fathers of Our Country (when referred to by Amricans), the Forefathers, Framers or the Founders are the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of...

Blackstone's work is divided into four volumes:

• The Rights of Persons is by and large concerned with the relations of status in the English social structure, from the King of England and the aristocracy down to the untitled commoners. Also dealt here were common relationships such as that of husband and wife, "master and servant", what we would now call employer and employee, and guardian and ward.
• The Rights of Things, Blackstone's longest volume, deals with property. The vast majority of the text treats of real property, this being the most valuable sort in the feudal law upon which the English law of land was founded. Property in chattels was already beginning to overshadow property in land, but its law lacked the complex feudal background of the common law of land, and was not dealt with by Blackstone at anywhere near the space he devoted to land.
• Of Private Wrongs dealt with torts as they existed in Blackstone's time. The various methods of trial that existed at civil law were also dealt with in this volume, as were the jurisdictions of the several courts, from the lowest to the highest. Blackstone also adds a brief chapter on equity, the parallel legal system that existed in English law at the time, seeking to address wrongs that the common law did not handle; the chapter on equity seems almost an afterthought.
• Of Public Wrongs is Blackstone's treatise on criminal law. Here, Blackstone the apologist takes centre stage; he seeks to explain how the criminal laws of England were just and merciful, a hard task when you consider that the statute books of the time prescribed the same penalty of death both for the theft of a shilling and for murder. Blackstone frequently had to resort to the devices of assuring his reader that the laws as written were not actually enforced, and that the King's power of pardon existed to correct any hardships or injustices.

While there is much valuable historical information in the Commentaries, later historians have tended to be somewhat critical of the uses Blackstone made of history. There is a lot of what would later be called "Whig history" in the Commentaries; the easy and contradictory assurance that England's current political settlement represented the optimal state of rational and just government, while claiming simultaneously that this optimal state was an ideal that had always existed in the past, despite the many struggles in England's actual history between overreaching kings and wayward Parliaments. This is a list of British monarchs, that is, the monarchs on the thrones of some of the various kingdoms that have existed on, or incorporated, the island of Great Britain, namely: England (united with Wales from 1536) up to 1707; Scotland up to 1707; The Kingdom of Great Britain... -1... Marriage is a relationship between individuals which often forms the foundation of a family. ... Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. ... In law, a ward is someone placed under the protection of a legal guardian. ... // Use of the term The concept of property or ownership has no single or universally accepted definition. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... Personal property is a type of property. ... In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong, other than a breach of contract, for which the law provides a remedy. ... In legal parlance, a trial is an event in which parties to a dispute present information (in the form of evidence) in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute. ... The Court of Chancery, London, early 19th century This article is about concept of equity in Anglo-American jurisprudence. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of common law that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. ... // Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offenses. ... Thief redirects to here. ... The shilling (or informally: bob) was an English coin first issued in 1548 for Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for Henry VII was the first English shilling. ... A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. ... For other senses of this word, see history (disambiguation). ... Whig history is a pejorative name given to a view of history that is shared by a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century British writers on historical subjects. ...

But Blackstone's chief contribution was to create a succinct, readable, and above all handy epitome of the common law tradition. While useful in England, Blackstone's text answered an urgent need in the developing United States. Here the common law tradition was being spread into frontier areas, but it was not feasible for lawyers and judges to carry around the large libraries that contained the common law precedents. The four volumes of Blackstone put the gist of that tradition in portable form. They were required reading for most lawyers in the Colonies, and for many, they were the only reading. Blackstone's Whiggish but conservative vision of English law as a force to protect people, their liberty, and their property, had a deep impact on the ideologies that were cited in support of the American Revolution, and ultimately, the United States Constitution. A lawyer is a person qualified to give legal advice who advises clients in legal matters and represents them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ... A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ... Precedent, sometimes authority, is the legal principle or rule created by a court which guides judges in subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. ... While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... Liberty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... The American Revolution was a revolution that ended two centuries of rule in Thirteen Colonies of North America by the British Empire and created the modern United States of America. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...

Quotations

• "That the king can do no wrong, is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution."
• "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer."

Sovereign immunity or crown immunity is a type of immunity that, in common law jurisdictions traces its origins from early English law. ...

External link

• Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School