William Blackstone
Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England
Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England
Pembroke College, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Pembroke College, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
University of Oxford, All Souls' College, Civil Law, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
University of Oxford, All Souls' College, Civil Law, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Westminster Hall, where the King's Bench sat until its abolition
The Court of Common Pleas in 1822
Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780)
The "Oxford windows" a bicentennial birthday gift to the William and Mary Law School
Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England
Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England
Pembroke College, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Pembroke College, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
University of Oxford, All Souls' College, Civil Law, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
University of Oxford, All Souls' College, Civil Law, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Westminster Hall, where the King's Bench sat until its abolition
The Court of Common Pleas in 1822
Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780)
The "Oxford windows" a bicentennial birthday gift to the William and Mary Law School
(This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic lite...)
This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare s finesse to Oscar Wilde s wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.
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(While America's Founding Fathers looked to various source...)
While America's Founding Fathers looked to various sources for political philosophy, the one they turned to predominantly in the field of law was Sir William Blackstone, a barrister and patron of King George III who set out on writing a comprehensive tome of English Common Law. In addition to being a popular work, the massive 4 book Commentaries on the Laws of England brought together all of England's legal precedents, allowing others (like the Americans) to rely on it while forming their own judicial codes. Even today, the U.S. Supreme Court frequently cites Blackstone when interpreting the Constitution. Book 1 of Blackstone’s Commentaries looks at the rights of people, covering all kinds of relationships, including between married couples, parents and children, guardianship, and even corporations.
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(While America's Founding Fathers looked to various source...)
While America's Founding Fathers looked to various sources for political philosophy, the one they turned to predominantly in the field of law was Sir William Blackstone, a barrister and patron of King George III who set out on writing a comprehensive tome of English Common Law. In addition to being a popular work, the massive 4 book Commentaries on the Laws of England brought together all of England's legal precedents, allowing others (like the Americans) to rely on it while forming their own judicial codes. Even today, the U.S. Supreme Court frequently cites Blackstone when interpreting the Constitution. Book 1 of Blackstone’s Commentaries looks at the rights of people, covering all kinds of relationships, including between married couples, parents and children, guardianship, and even corporations.
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(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)
This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries’ mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library at www.hathitrust.org.
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William Blackstone was born in Cheapside, London, on July 10, 1723, the posthumous son of Charles Blackstone, a merchant. Although Charles and Mary Blackstone were members of the middle class rather than landed gentry, they were particularly prosperous. His mother died when Blackstone was 12, so he was placed in the care of his uncle.
He began his education at Charterhouse School, and at the age of fifteen was sent to continue his studies at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was elected a fellow of All Souls, Oxford, in 1744 and received the bachelor of civil law degree in 1745.
Although he was admitted to the bar in 1746 after graduation from the University in 1745, he had limited success in practicing law and continued to hold several university posts and to lecture on English law.
His purpose, however, was simply to provide literate men with entertaining and persuasive explanations of the existing legal order rather than to construct a critical and consistent jurisprudence. But he held that there are few such principles and that most positive law concerns matters on which natural law is silent.
In February 1761 Blackstone was considered as a potential Tory candidate for the rotten borough of Hindon in Wiltshire. In April 1765 Blackstone began to actively seek judicial appointment. In December 1761 he asked Lord Shelburne, a patron, for his assistance in gaining appointment as Chief Justice of Chester. He again applied for a judicial post in December 1762, after an opening in the Exchequer of Pleas came up, but lost to George Perrott, a leading Exchequer barrister. The next five vacancies also failed to go to Blackstone, after the appointment of Lord Camden (a Whig) as Lord Chancellor.
Blackstone was active in the prison-reform movement, worked against the tendency to extend the list of capital offenses, and was critical of the poor laws. By 3 February 1780 he was too weak to write, and after "some Days almost totally insensible", he died on 14 February.
After 1850 United States lawyers no longer tried to copy Blackstone, for living law was being shaped by the local institutions. By the middle of the 20th century few Americans had read Blackstone, even as a classic, but he remains a symbol for American lawyers.
Sir William Blackstone is remembered for his Commentaries on the Laws of England, the first attempt since the 13th century to provide a comprehensive treatment of English law.
In the United States, Blackstone's example contributed significantly to the development of law schools, and during the Revolutionary and post revolutionary periods the Commentaries was the most widely read law text in America. By the middle of the 20th century few Americans had read Blackstone, even as a classic, but he remains a symbol for American lawyers.
In the early 1920s the American Bar Association presented a statue of Blackstone to the English Bar Association, however, at the time, the sculpture was too tall to be placed in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The sculpture, designed by Paul Wayland Bartlett was eventually cast in Europe and presented back to the US for display. Congress approved the placement of the sculpture in Washington, D. C. on 15 March 1943, and appropriated $10, 000 for the installation. The bronze statue is a nine-foot (2. 7 m) standing portrait of Blackstone wearing judicial robes and a long curly wig, holding a copy of Commentaries. It is placed on a tall granite base and stands on Constitution Avenue & 3rd Street NW. The town of Blackstone, Virginia is named after him.
(While America's Founding Fathers looked to various source...)
(While America's Founding Fathers looked to various source...)
(This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic lite...)
(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)
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He was not a zealous politician, describing himself as “amid the Rage of contending Parties, a Man of Moderation.” He spoke mainly on legal and constitutional questions, the most conspicuous of which was the Middlesex election of 1769, when he supported the expulsion of the political reformer John Wilkes from the House of Commons. His opinion on this controversy was attacked as being inconsistent with the legal principles he enunciated in his Commentaries.
Blackstone had only a vague grasp of systematic conceptions of law, and he was in fact frequently illogical, inconsistent, and uncritical. His purpose, however, was simply to provide literate men with entertaining and persuasive explanations of the existing legal order rather than to construct a critical and consistent jurisprudence. Commentaries performed a service for society and should be regarded more as a handbook for the layman than as a legal treatise. In his treatment of law Blackstone argued a division between natural and positive (municipal) law by insisting on the existence of a natural law and maintaining that positive law which is not in accord with the principles of natural law is not law at all. But he held that there are few such principles and that most positive law concerns matters on which natural law is silent. Rights and wrongs are objects of law; rights are of persons or things, while wrongs are either public or private. Evidently, he regarded the law of gravitation, the law of England, and the law of nature as examples of the same principle, that is, the imposition of rules by a superior power on its subjects. Blackstone's lack of precise terminology and use of loose phraseology result in contradictions. When he borrowed the scholastic definition of positive law, "a right or just ordinance commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong," he deliberately struck out "right or just." Thus it is not clear whether he meant that whatever the law commands is right or that only laws that command what is morally right are really laws. He also reasserted the traditional equation of natural law with common law. Thus he did not directly face up to the problem of whether men only have those rights which the law gives them or whether law is simply the acknowledgment by the state of the natural rights inherent in each individual. According to Blackstone, Englishmen enjoyed only those rights which the common law proclaimed, but in fact Englishmen had created the common law to proclaim their rights.
Evidently, he regarded the law of gravitation, the law of England, and the law of nature as examples of the same principle, that is, the imposition of rules by a superior power on its subjects Blackstone's lack of precise terminology and use of loose phraseology result in contradictions.
When he borrowed the scholastic definition of positive law, "a right or just ordinance commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong," he deliberately struck out "right or just."
Thus it is not clear whether he meant that whatever the law commands is right or that only laws that command what is morally right are really laws. He also reasserted the traditional equation of natural law with common law.
Quotations:
"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolate. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture."
"THIS law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original."
"The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state: but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public: to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press: but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity."
"Man must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator. This will of his Maker is called the Law of Nature. This Law of Nature is superior to any other. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."
"If the legislature will positively enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government."
"Punishments of unreasonable severity, especially where indiscriminately afflicted, have less effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than such as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions of severity."
"So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community. "
In 1761 Blackstone married Sarah Clitherow. They had eight children but all of them died in childhood.
Was a silk merchant from Cheapside.
unknown–1783
21 August 1762
He became firm friends with Thomas Bigg, a surgeon and the son of Lovelace Bigg, a gentleman from Wiltshire.
Alexander Popham later became a close friend of Blackstone.
