“And all you’ve got is Rawle, publishing a book 42 years later, and he not even being a delegate? “
I’ll take Rawle over a Swiss legal philosopher who never once set foot in the United States. Knowledge and practice of AMERICAN law trumps international law in my book, any day.
Yes, tried and true Monarchical law is obviously superior to that new-fangled Republican stuff. Obviously that's what the founders were going for.
Since the Revolution every State has made great inroads & with great propriety in many instances on this monarchical code. The "revisal of the laws" by a Committe[e] of wch. Col. Mason was a member, though not an acting one, abounds with such innovations. The abolition of the right of primogeniture, which I am sure Col. Mason does not disapprove, falls under this head. What could the Convention have done? If they had in general terms declared the Common law to be in force, they would have broken in upon the legal Code of every State in the most material points: they wd. have done more, they would have brought over from G.B. a thousand heterogeneous & antirepublican doctrines, and even the ecclesiastical Hierarchy itself, for that is a part of the Common law.