Commentaries on the laws of England
in four books (Book 3)
by Sir William Blackstone · first published 1721
12mentions
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10HN commenters
2013–2026first – last mentioned
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Historical legal treatise on the common laws of England as of the mid eighteenth century.
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…definition of terms. Which property rights are human rights? Certainly, the right to a limited liability corporate form is not a human right. I think you might be interested in William Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England" [1]. The US inherited all its property laws from British common law. It's a tough read, but it is fascinating. Makes you ask questions like "what is property?" What makes something yours? Another…
on “Bahamas Company Registry Leaked” ↗Today I learned: the idea that a corporation can commit a crime is a very new one. [1] People commit crimes, not companies. [1] William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 464 (1765) (“A corporation cannot commit treason or felony or other crime in its corporate capacity though it’s members may in their distinct individual capacities.”)
on “Instagram faces $500B in fines alleging it harvested biometric data” ↗ex post facto isn't English, it's not even really Latin. It's a legalism. The go to source of meaning for Anglo legalism in the late 19th century was Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England" . It's the Blackstone definition that the Court adopted.
on “California To Hit Startup Founders with Big Retroactive Tax Bills” ↗…right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." - St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803 "Context clues" are a critical part of reading comprehension. When the meaning of a word or phrase is unclear, the other writing surrounding the word or phrase can be used as a clue as to what…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstones_formulation "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer", ...as expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s. It is worth note that the actual numbers are not generally seen as important, so much as the idea that the State should not cause undue or mistaken harm "just in case". Historically,…
on “Teen: I Am Not the Boston Marathon Bomber” ↗…http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/98-326.pdf I'll ping my buddy to see if he can shed a little more light, but this is related to wiretaps, which is slightly different from eavesdropping. [1] 4 BLACKSTONE,COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND, 169 (1769). [2]1 BISHOP, COMMENTARIES ON THE CRIMINAL LAW, 670 (1882)."
on “DOJ: We don't need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats” ↗…history of American law and deep into the English common-law tradition. That tradition was captured most comprehensively — and communicated to the American founders most forcefully — by William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England... > A corporation is simply a legally recognized group of people cooperating with a view to some common end. Indeed, the very purpose of that legal recognition and the rights that accompany it is to…
on “The Whanganui River in New Zealand is a legal person” ↗What happened to "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer." As expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s. Seems you're willing to punish an innocent man and a guilty man just to make sure a committed crime is followed up with a conviction. Why have such a low bar in 2019?
on “California Police Are Sharing Facial Recognition Databases to ID Suspects” ↗Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, 9th ed., book 4, chapter 27, p. 358 (1783, reprinted 1978), says, “For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” Likewise could it not be said…
on “Anthony Levandowski Pardoned” ↗…prejudices about expectations, moral judgment, or sheer ignorance of circumstances. — Stafford Beer (2001) > It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. — William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England book 4: Of Public Wrongs (1768)
on “Judge stops FTC from enforcing ban on non-compete agreements” ↗Reminds me of another story about older scripts being hard to read: I found a paperback with Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England[1]. In the intro, it explains how they made the deliberate decision to render them as pixel-for-pixel copies of the original texts, so you could get the most pure, unadulterated form. I'm like lol whatever,…
on “Unified Arabic” ↗That's true. (Commentaries on the Laws of England summarises a tradition older than the United States, but your point still holds.) Maybe falsely imprisoning innocents en-masse is okay, provided that (for example) the false imprisonment ratio is low…
on “Judge stops FTC from enforcing ban on non-compete agreements” ↗