The Oxford Edition of Blackstone's: Commentaries on the Laws of England: Book III: Of Private Wrongs

by William Blackstone, Thomas P. Gallanis (Editor)

Oxford's variorum edition of William Blackstone's seminal treatise on the common law of England and Wales offers the definitive account of the Commentaries' development in a modern format. For the first time it is possible to trace the evolution of English law and Blackstone's thought through the eight editions of Blackstone's lifetime, and the authorial corrections of the posthumous ninth edition. Introductions by the general editor and the volume editors set the Commentaries in their historical context, examining Blackstone's distinctive view of the common law, and editorial notes throughout the four volumes assist the modern reader in understanding this key text in the Anglo-American common law tradition. Entitled Of Private Wrongs, Book III can be divided into three principal parts. The first describes the multiple courts in England and their jurisdictions, including the wrongs cognizable in each of them. The second describes some aspects of the substantive common law: wrongs to persons and to personal and real property. The third describes the processes of litigation in the courts of common law and equity.

Genres: Law, Politics, Reference, History

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1768

About the author

Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist, judge, and Tory politician. He served as the first Vinerian Professor of Common Law at the University of Oxford from 1758 until 1766. His series of lectures on English law, the first of their kind in any university, have endured since their publication as a definitive reference on the principles of Common Law. The first American edition was produced in 1772; prior to this, over 1,000 copies had already been sold in the Thirteen Colonies, and it was greatly influential among the Framers of the Constitution. Event today, Blackstone's Commentaries are cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions 10-12 times a year. His plan for a dedicated School of Law, included in the Commentaries upon its rejection by Oxford, provided the foundation of the modern system of American law schools. A 9-foot statue of Blackstone stands on Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE THIRD OF A FOUR-VOLUME "CLASSIC" SET OF THE LAW

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician; these Commentaries were first published in four volumes (On the Rights of Persons; On the Rights of Things; Of Private Wrongs; Of Public Wrongs) between 1765-1769, and were very influential on the development of the American legal system.

He begins by saying, "Wrongs are divisible into two sorts of species: private wrongs, and public wrongs. The former are infringements or privation of the private or civil rights belonging to individuals considered as individuals... the latter are a breach and violation of public rights and duties, which affect the whole community... To investigate the first of these species of wrongs, with their legal remedies, will be our employment in the present book..." (Pg. 2)

He points out that the term "exchequer" (as in "court of the Exchequer") is so called "from the checqued cloth, resembling a chess-board, which covers the table there; and on which... the sums are marked and scored with counters." (Pg. 44)

He states that "With regard to the third absolute right of individuals, or that of private property, though the enjoyment of it, when acquired, is strictly a personal right; (but) it's nature and original, and the means of its acquisition or loss, fell more directly under our second general division, of the rights of things..." (Pg. 138) He argues, "the law gives no private remedy for anything for a private wrong. Therefore no action lies for a public or common nuisance, but an indictment only: because the damage being common to all the king's subjects, no one can assign his particular proportion of it." (Pg. 219)

He suggests, "the trial by jury ever has been, and I trust ever will be, looked upon as the glory of the English law. And, if it has so great an advantage over others in regulating civil property, how much must that advantage be heightened, when it is applied to criminal cases!" (Pg. 379)

Blackstone's commentaries will be of great interest to those studying the development of our law.