William Blackstone

Sir William Blackstone [ wiljəm ' blækstən ] (* July 10, 1723 in City of London, London, † February 14, 1780 in Wallingford, Berkshire, now Oxfordshire ) was an English lawyer, judge, professor and member of Parliament. He is best known for its historical analytic treatise on the common law, the ( Engl. about: Comments on the laws of England ) Commentaries on the Laws of England known, which were first published in the years 1765-1769 by the University of Oxford University Press.

Life

Blackstone was in Cheapside, a famous street in London, was born as the fourth son of a draper, who had died a few months before his birth. As Blackstone's mother died, he was at the age of twelve, an orphan and went to live with his uncle Thomas Bigg. Despite all this, Blackstone acquired an excellent education, he first attended 1730-1738 the elite Charterhouse School and then studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1741 he was at the Middle Temple, one of the four bar associations, the Inns of Court, a student and two years later, Blackstone was elected a member of All Souls College, Oxford. In 1746 he was finally Barrister. Blackstone spent at All Souls College are not successful time, but has always been a capable, efficient and avid collector. In 1750 he published An Essay on Collateral consanguinity. Since 1751, Blackstone had worked as a judge, so he developed a great interest in the Common Law. From 1753 he held lectures about it, what were the first worldwide to be held at universities on this subject. His 1756 published An Analysis of the Laws of England formed the basis on which he later his famous Commentaries on the Laws of England wrote. When Charles Viner in 1758 founded the Viner'sche Department of English law, which still exists today (English Vinerian Professorship of English Law ), Blackstone was the first chairman in the same year, until he was replaced in 1766 by Robert Chambers.

1761 Blackstone MP in the House of Commons, where he remained until 1770, nine years, in May of the same year he married Sarah Clitherow and acquired the Castle Priory in his hometown of Wallingford. Ten years before his death, he was knighted.

Towards the end of the 1770s worsened Blackstone's health and he died in 1780 in Wallingford, where he was buried in the St. Peter 's Church.

Commentaries on the Laws of England

Genesis and intention

The Commentaries on the Laws of England should provide an overview of the then existing law of England. However, the actual publication of the Commentaries was preceded by a variety of otherwise work. In fact, the comments are a summary of lectures held the Black Stone in his time as a professor. 1754 was a first short summary, the published Analysis of the Laws of England, which should serve as a guide for his students.

The purpose of the Commentaries on the Laws of England was to give a summary of all applicable laws of England, which was the first attempt since Henry de Bracton writings De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae from the 13th century.

Today Blackstone's Commentaries are more likely to be insignificant, but at the time they formed a basis of legal education to universities.

Content

On the whole, the Commentaries are a summary of judicial decisions which were considered test cases to which Blackstone also wrote descriptions and depictions. His work includes, among other cases, the right to property, personal rights, tort law and criminal law.