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    Blackstone, William


To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom. But confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to gaol, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten; is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 132-133 (1765)
 
Added on 20-Jun-11 | Last updated 20-Jun-11
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The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual’s private rights.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 9th ed., book 1, ch. 1, sec. 3, (1783)
 
Added on 17-Jul-12 | Last updated 17-Jul-12
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The absolute rights of man, considered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to know good from evil, and with power of choosing those measures which appear to him to be most desirable, are usually summed up in one general appellation, and denominated the natural liberty of mankind. This natural liberty consists properly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature: being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation, when he endowed him with the faculty of freewill. But every man, when he enters into society, gives up a part of his natural liberty, as the price of so valuable a purchase; and, in consideration of receiving the advantages of mutual commerce, obliges himself to conform to those laws, which the community has thought proper to establish.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 1, ch. 1 “Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals” (1765-1769)
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Added on 24-Aug-12 | Last updated 24-Aug-12
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In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 1, ch. 2 (1783)
 
Added on 12-Oct-12 | Last updated 12-Oct-12
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The rack, or question, to extort a confession from criminals, is a practice of a different nature; […] an engine of the state, not of law.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4 “Of Public Wrongs,” ch. 25 “Arraignment” (1769)
 
Added on 17-Dec-14 | Last updated 17-Dec-14
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Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is the immediate gift of the great creator; and which therefore no man can be entitled to deprive himself or another of, but in some manner either expressly commanded in, or evidently deducible from, those laws which the creator has given us; the divine laws, I mean, of either nature or revelation.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4, ch. 14 “Of Homicide” (1765-1769)
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Added on 14-Sep-12 | Last updated 14-Sep-12
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All the several pleas and excuses, which protect the committer of a forbidden act from the punishment which is otherwise annexed thereto, may be reduced to this single consideration, the want or defect of will. An involuntary act, as it has no claim to merit, so neither can it induce any guilt: the concurrence of the will, when it has its choice either to do or to avoid the fact in question, being the only thing that renders human actions either praiseworthy or culpable. Indeed, to make a complete crime, cognizable by human laws, there must be both a will and an act.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4, ch. 2 “Of the Persons Capable of Committing Crimes” (1765-1769)
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Added on 7-Sep-12 | Last updated 7-Sep-12
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The founders of the English laws have with excellent forecast contrived, that no man should be called to answer to the king for any capital crime, unless upon the preparatory accusation of twelve or more of his fellow subjects, the grand jury: and that the truth of every accusation, whether preferred in the shape of indictment, information, or appeal, should afterwards be confirmed by the unanimous suffrage of twelve of his equals and neighbours, indifferently chosen, and superior to all suspicion. So that the liberties of England cannot but subsist, so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks, (which none will be so hardy as to make) but also from all secret machinations, which may sap and undermine it; by introducing new and arbitrary methods of trial, by justices of the peace, commissioners of the revenue, and courts of conscience. And however convenient these may appear at first, (as doubtless all arbitrary powers, well executed, are the most convenient) yet let it be again remembered, that delays, and little inconveniences in the forms of justice, are the price that all free nations must pay for their liberty in more substantial matters; that these inroads upon this sacred bulwark of the nation are fundamentally opposite to the spirit of our constitution; and that, though begun in trifles, the precedent may gradually increase and spread, to the utter disuse of juries in questions of the most momentous concern.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4, ch. 27 “Of Trial, And Conviction”(1765-1769)
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Added on 28-Sep-12 | Last updated 28-Sep-12
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For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4, ch. 27 (1765-1769)
 
Added on 5-Oct-12 | Last updated 5-Oct-12
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In this distinct and separate existence of the judicial power, in a peculiar body of men, nominated indeed, but not removable at pleasure, by the crown, consists one main preservative of the public liberty; which cannot subsist long in any state, unless the administration of common justice be in some degree separated both from the legislative and the also from the executive power. Were it joined with the legislative, the life, liberty, and property of the subject would be in the hands of arbitrary judges, whose decisions would be then regulated only by their own opinions, and not by any fundamental principles of law; which, though legislators may depart from, yet judges are bound to observe. Were it joined with the executive, this union might soon be an overbalance for the legislative. For which reason … effectual care is taken to remove all judicial power out of the hands of the king’s privy council; who, as then was evident from recent instances might soon be inclined to pronounce that for law, which was most agreeable to the prince or his officers. Nothing therefore is to be more avoided, in a free constitution, than uniting the provinces of a judge and a minister of state.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book I, ch. 7 “Of the King’s Prerogative” (1765-1769)
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Added on 31-Aug-12 | Last updated 31-Aug-12
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