by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian & College Archivist
William Blackstone was born in London July 10, 1723. After
the deaths of his parents, he was raised by his uncle and received a classical
education. While he loved poetry, he decided to study law. He was called to the
bar in 1746 and was not what you would call successful. He returned to Oxford when
he was elected to the position of bursar of All Souls College. He continued his
studies, and in 1750 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law. After being
passed over for a professorship, he was encouraged by William Murray, the
future Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, to give
lectures on the English common law.
The lectures were very well attended, and it was not long
after that Blackstone made the observation that students needed textbooks to
supplement the lectures. To that end, he published the syllabus for his
lectures in 1756 as An Analysis of the
Laws of England. Due in large part to the popularity of his lectures,
Blackstone was appointed as the first Vinerian Professor at Oxford in 1758. The
position required him to give 60 lectures a year on the laws of England. “This
marked the first recognition by a university of the importance of instruction
in English common law.” (Zeydel p. 307)
Prior to Blackstone, the common law was a mass of precedents
which had not been formalized in to basic principles. The Commentaries not only
put the common law into a comprehensible system but also taught readers how to
conceptualize legal questions. The four volume set, which totals around 2000
pages, is broken down into the rights of persons; the rights of things
(property); private wrongs and their redress (remedies); and public wrongs
(criminal law). By emphasizing the
teaching method of clear lecture and teaching content of both substance and
procedure, Blackstone suggested the beginning of law schools, and it was from
his plan that the first American law schools were built. (ibid, p. 308)
While the Commentaries
met with some criticism in Britain, they were hugely popular in the American
colonies. The first printing in the Americas came from Robert Bell, a publisher
and book seller in Philadelphia in 1772. The fourth volume contained a list of
all the subscribers - over 800 of them. Printing a work such as the Commentaries was a large and expensive
undertaking. Because of this, printers would use subscriptions to underwrite
the production of a book. Among those eager to
own a copy were 16 future signers of the Declaration of Independence as well as
one Captain Thomas Marshall, father of then 16 year old John Marshall, future
Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Blackstone had a great influence
on American law and government, even though he believed that the American colonists
didn’t have the same common law rights as British subjects and voted for the
Stamp Act as a Member of Parliament.(ibid, p. 311-312)
Regardless of his personal feelings about the rights of the
colonies, the people themselves were voracious consumers of his Commentaries. According to Lockmiller,
it was “instrumental in preparing legal minds to make prompt attacks and
resourceful defenses in the relations between the colonies and the mother
country prior to the outbreak of hostilities.” (Lockmiller, pp. 172-173) The Constitutional
convention used Blackstone's analysis of the English government to set up the structure
of the government as set out in Articles I,II, and III of the Constitution. The fledging nation used the English common
law to establish the basis of its legal system, and the Commentaries were its
printed representation. Blackstone also influenced generations of legal minds
in the United States. From James Kent to Abraham Lincoln, American lawyers
read, often several times, Blackstone’s Commentaries.
In North Carolina it was the standard text for law students and was, in fact,
the most popular textbook in the United States. It was an indispensable tool
for law students, lawyers, and judges: between 1789 and 1915 it was cited, and
usually approved, in American cases over 10,000 times (ibid, p. 179). It is still
consulted today when questions about the meaning of the Constitution arise, and
the US Supreme Court still cites the Commentaries
in its opinions.
Two hundred and fifty year ago, William Blackstone did what
no other writer had done before: he made the common law understandable to
lawyer and layman alike. He created categories and put the common law into a
comprehensible system. He taught his readers how to conceptualize legal
questions. (Berring, p. 191) His method included a view that the law could respond to changing needs,
that it was part of a social system. This is not to say the work didn’t have
its flaws; however, those pale in comparison to what Blackstone achieved. In the fledgling United States, the
Commentaries wasn’t just an explanation of the law, it became the law. (Posner, p. 571) It taught the founding fathers their rights, assisted them in creating our
government, and became the bible of the American lawyer for over 100 years.
On display now in the second floor lobby of the Fred Parks
Law Library is a display some of the library’s holdings of the Commentaries,
including the first edition, as well as works by American legal scholars inspired
by Blackstone and those by his critics. “Celebrating the 250th
anniversary of the Commentaries on the
Laws of England” will be on display until November 19, 2015.
Works cited/consulted:
Robert Berring. “The Ultimate Oldie by Goodie: William
Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England.”, 4 J. L. 189 2014
David A. Lockmiller. Sir
William Blackstone. (Gloucester, Mass., Peter Smith. 1970).
Albert S. Miles., David L. Dagley, Christina H.
Yau.”Blackstone and His American Legacy,” 5 Austl. & N.Z. J.L. & Educ.
46 2000.
Richard Posner. “Blackstone and Bentham” 19 J. L. & Econ. 569 1976.
Walter H. Zeydel. “Sir William Blackstone and His Commentaries,”
The Quarterly Journal of the Library of
Congress, vol 23, no. 4, October
1966.
