Commentaries on the Laws of England: A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765-1769, Vol. 4 » (1)

Stanley N. Katz is a professor of public and international affairs and the director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at Princeton University.

A.W. Brian Simpson is the Charles F. and Edith J. Clyne Professor of Law at the University of Michigan.

John H. Langbein is the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale University.

Thomas. A. Green is the John P. Dawson Collegiate Professor of Law and professor of history at the University of Michigan.

Perhaps the most important legal treatise ever written in the English language, Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69) was the first effort to consolidate English common law into a unified and rational system. Clearly and elegantly written, the work achieved immediate renown and exerted a powerful influence on legal education both in England and America. This handsomely produced, slipcased four-volume set includes facsimiles of the eighteenth-century first edition, undistorted by later interpolations.

The Commentaries is divided into four books. The first, introduced by Stanley N. Katz, deals with what Blackstone called "the rights of persons," what a modern lawyer would call constitutional law, the legal structure of government. Book II includes an introduction by A. W. Brian Simpson and describes the law of property. Book III, introduced by John H. Langbein, analyzes civil procedure and remedies. The last book, which is devoted to criminal law and procedure, includes an introduction by Thomas A. Green.

Now regarded as a literary, as well as a legal classic, Blackstone's Commentaries brilliantly laid out the system of English law in the mid-eighteenth century, demonstrating that as a system of justice, it was comparable to Roman law and the civil law of the Continent. Ironically, the work also revealed to the colonists the insufficiencies of the system and became a model for the legal system of the fledgling American nation in 1789. Supplemented with commentary by experts in the field, these classic facsimile volumes belong on every lawyer's bookshelves.

Volume I: Of the Rights of Persons (1765)
Volume II: Of the Rights of Things (1766)
Volume III: Of Private Wrongs (1768)
Volume IV: Of Public Wrongs (1769)

INTRODUCTION.

SECT. I.
On the STUDY of the LAW.

SECT. II.
Of the NATURE of LAWS in general.

SECT. III.
Of the LAWS of ENGLAND.

SECT. IV.
Of the COUNTRIES Subject to the LAWS of ENGLAND.

BOOK I.
Of the RIGHTS of PERSONS.

CHAP. I.
Of the absolute RIGHTS of INDIVIDUALS.

CHAP. II.
Of the PARLIAMENT.

CHAP. III.
Of the KING, and his TITLE.

CHAP. IV.
Of the KING'S royal FAMILY.

CHAP. V.
Of the COUNCILS belonging to the KING.

CHAP. VI.
Of the KING'S DUTIES.

CHAP. VII.
Of the KING'S PREROGATIVE.

CHAPT. VIII.
Of the KING'S REVENUE.

CHAP. IX.
Of Subordinate MAGISTRATES.

CHAP. X.
Of the PEOPLE, whether ALIENS, DENIZENS, or NATIVES.

CHAP. XI.
Of the CLERGY

CHAP. XII.
Of the CIVIL STATE.

CHAP. XIII.
Of the MILITARY AND MARITIME STATES.

CHAP. XIV.
Of MASTERS and SERVANT.

CHAP. XV.
Of HUSBAND and WIFE.

CHAP. XVI.
Of PARENT and CHILD.

CHAP. XVII.
Of GUARDIAN and WARD.

CHAP. XVIII.
Of CORPORATIONS.