A number of them talked of the ‘fundamental rights’ of Englishmen and declared that the legal control exercised by the English monarch and his government was against the principles of natural equity. Even though Coke and his contemporaries had never seriously questioned the authority of Parliament, American activists talked of the common law in the same terms as natural law. It promised individuals a set of fundamental rights, they maintained, and guaranteed their freedom. Rather than substantive rules handed down by the ruler, the law required the consent of the people.
