Quotes by Sir William Blackstone
1723 – 1780
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.
Bio
Blackstone featured as the July 2021 OLL Birthday. Read it here.
Colonies, Slavery & Abolition
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)
Law
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)
Natural Rights
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)
Property Rights
Sir William Blackstone argues that occupancy of previously unowned land creates a natural right to that property which excludes others from it (1753)
Women’s Rights
The Women of Seneca Falls and William Blackstone