Sir William Blackstone

1723 - 1780

About the Author

Sir William Blackstone’s (1723-1780) four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England assures him a place in history as one of the greatest scholars of English common law. Blackstone began his lectures on the common law in 1753. His Commentaries served as a primary instruction tool in England and America well into the nineteenth century and exerted a pronounced influence on the development of the American legal tradition.

For additional information about William Blackstone see the following:

• in the Goodrich Seminar Room: William Blackstone

In The Library:

• author: The Best of the OLL No. 9: Sir William Blackstone, “Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals” (1766) (2013)
• author: Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, 2 vols. (1753)
• author: Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, vol. 1 (1753)
• author: Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books, vol. 2 (1753)

Quotations:

• Sir William Blackstone argues that occupancy of previously unowned land creates a natural right to that property which excludes others from it (1753) (4 September, 2008)
• Sir William Blackstone declares unequivocally that slavery is “repugnant to reason, and the principles of natural law” and that it has no place in English law (1753) (5 January, 2009)
• Sir William Blackstone provides a strong defence of personal liberty and concludes that to “secretly hurry” a man to prison is a “dangerous engine of arbitrary government” (1753) (4 May, 2009)
• Sir William Blackstone differentiates between “absolute rights” of individuals (natural rights which exist prior to the state) and social rights (contractural rights which evolve later) (1753) (5 May, 2009)