Free Republic

It is better five guilty persons should escape unpunished than one innocent Person should die,” Adams began, quoting Hale’s Pleas of the Crown. He next explained the law as it bore on mob actions, and he reminded the jury of Blackstone’s view of self-defense: it is the “primary Canon of the Law of Nature.” He then moved on to the evidence, masterfully picking apart the weaknesses and inconsistencies in the crown’s case and passing quickly over the damning portions. Instead of challenging the truthfulness of the prosecution’s witnesses, he noted the fallibility of human perception. Honest men could disagree about...

In his office in the Alabama Judicial Building, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker proudly displays a four-volume 1773 edition of Commentaries on the Laws of England. Written by William Blackstone, the famous English jurist, Commentaries formed the core of American jurisprudence both before and after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, said Parker, who was first elected to the high court of Alabama in 2004 and reelected six years later.An introduction in the reprint from University of Chicago Press begins with this startling sentence: “Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765-69, is the most important legal...