William Blackstone Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780) was an English jurist and legal scholar whose exposition of English common law continues to resonate in courtrooms in the early twenty-first century. His Commentaries on the Laws of England, published over four volumes beginning in 1765, was a comprehensive yet accessible treatise on the history of common law that proved critical to jurists in both England and the colonies of America. Blackstone’s Commentaries is still cited in American courts of law as one of the foremost influences on the American Founders and a cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution.

Born in London, Blackstone studied at Oxford before being admitted to the bar in 1746. He both practiced and taught law to little major public acclaim until the 1756 publication of his An Analysis of the Laws of England, a work comprising many of his lectures at Oxford. In 1761 he was appointed as a counsel to the Crown and was elected to the House of Commons, where he exhibited a mostly Tory ideology. He was knighted in 1770 and appointed as a justice to the Court of Common Pleas, the last formal position he would hold.

Many of these appointments can be traced to the fame Blackstone experienced as a result of the success of his collected lectures. His Commentaries was well received in Europe, where it was translated into many languages, and in America, where its first publication in 1771 met with widespread acclaim for its utility in summarizing the legal tradition of England and how it might be applied to a new political landscape. The work was divided into four legal subjects: the “Rights of Persons” (or individuals), the “Rights of Things” (or property law), “Private Wrongs,” and “Public Wrongs.” Taken together, the volumes encompass an able introduction to the common law tradition for the aspiring lawyers Blackstone instructed and a ready framework for the American Founders in justifying the Declaration of Independence and, later, the construction of the Constitution. While luminaries such as British philosopher John Locke, American founding father Thomas Paine, and other Enlightenment thinkers provided abstract justifications for the natural rights of the colonists, the Commentaries offered a crucial practical vindication of and design for an independent legal system in America.

While Blackstone’s influence has waned in the realm of contemporary legal thought, there can be little doubt concerning the pivotal role he played during the debates during and after the American constitutional convention of 1787, during which his work was frequently invoked for both Federalist and antiFederalist causes. Furthermore, the Commentaries acted as a layman’s barricade for the tradition of English common law against encroaching parliamentary legislation, just when such a defense was most needed. These twin contributions alone enshrine Blackstone as a pillar of legal theory, earning him praise and criticism from later philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin.

Bibliography:

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vols, edited by Wayne Morrison. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon, 2001.
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Mysterious Science of the Law: An Essay on Blackstone’s Commentaries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Plucknett, Theodore F.T. A Concise History of the Common Law. London: Butterworth, 1956.
Warden, C. Lewis. The Life of William Blackstone. Charlottesville, Va.: Michie, 1938.