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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.

William Blackstone

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William Blackstone
Age: 56 †
Born: 1723
Born: July 10
Died: 1780
Died: February 14
Barrister
Judge
Jurist
Politician
University Teacher
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the City
Sir William Blackstone
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Subversive
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Mankind will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity.
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The most universal and effectual way of discovering the true meaning of law, when the words are dubious, is by considering the reason and spirit of it or the cause which moved the legislator to enact it. for when this reason ceased, the law itself ought likewise to cease with it.
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In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.
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No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
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Man..must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being..And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will.
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It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
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Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practiced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.
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That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
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The Bible has always been regarded as part of the Common Law of England.
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The third absolute right, inherent in every Englishman, is that of . . . the sacred and inviolable rights of private property.
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The law, which restrains a man from doing mischief to his fellow citizens, though it diminishes the natural, increases the civil liberty of mankind.
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Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws.
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Men was formed for society, and is neither capable of living alone, nor has the courage to do it.
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No outward doors of a man's house can in general be broken open to execute any civil process though in criminal cases the public safety supersedes the private.
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[Self-defense is] justly called the primary law of nature, so it is not, neither can it be in fact, taken away by the laws of society.
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Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other.
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Free men have arms slaves do not.
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The husband and wife are one, and that one is the husband.
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There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.
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Gaming is a kind of tacit confession that the company engaged therein do in general exceed the bounds of their respective fortunes, and therefore they cast lots to determine upon whom the ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may be saved a little longer.
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