Blackstone

Commentaries On The Laws Of England (1897)
$55.95
Every American lawyer ought to read Blackstone.

Not that the law he contains is still reliable, although much of it is. But for the big picture, the history of the development of the English common law, he remains an indispensible source.

The American founding fathers grew up with this stuff, and these four volumes were indispensible for a Colonial gentleman's education. In viewing them, you will gain a new understanding of the meaning of the Constitution of the United States. As Blackstone develops the law, he sets it against the backdrop of the British struggle against arbitrary rule by the King, the seventeenth century wars of religious fanaticism, and England's long battle to win free from the power of the papacy. To read Blackstone is to learn what the founding fathers thought and feared, and what they wrote the Constitution to guard against.

Commentaries on the Laws of England: A Facsimile of the First Edition of 1765-1769, Vol. 1
$35.00
The forward thinks it's a great thing that every page is a facsimile of the original version. But the novelty of that wears off after the first page. The old font, old printing press, and above all the substitution of the letter "f" for the letter "s" inside a word turns an otherwise fine book into a needlessly annoying read. Example from p. 74, "each diftrict mutually facrificing fome of it's own fpecial ufages." I happen to think that the last 2 1/2 centuries of advancements in printing technology were not superfluous.

I also think it's important for lawyers to know Latin terms that are used in the legal sense (though too often in my opinion). But several times you come across 3-4 consecutive sentences of Latin that few students will take the time to translate word by word. I would have appreciated a few well-placed footnotes.

I'm still trying to find an edited version of this book. It's English after all, it's not like words would be changed. I just want a readable font and the "f"s changed back to "s"s.

John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles (PC)
$11.86
I read the previous entry and its right on...the game is very disturbing and very real I might add. I learned much about these psycho-medical methods when I was in college learning psychology...but aside from the disturbing torture descriptions for the faint of heart, all should find some amusement in this game. As a fan of horror I found this game to be second only to Puzzle of Flesh...another fantastic game.

Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England: Four books in 2 volumes
$250.00
Perhaps the most important legal treatise ever written in the English language, Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69) was the first effort to consolidate English common law into a unified and rational system. Clearly and elegantly written, the work achieved immediate renown and exerted a powerful influence on legal education both in England and America. This handsomely produced, slipcased four-volume set includes facsimiles of the eighteenth-century first edition, undistorted by later interpolations.

The Commentaries is divided into four books. The first, introduced by Stanley N. Katz, deals with what Blackstone called "the rights of persons," what a modern lawyer would call constitutional law, the legal structure of government. Book II includes an introduction by A. W. Brian Simpson and describes the law of property. Book III, introduced by John H. Langbein, analyzes civil procedure and remedies. The last book, which is devoted to criminal law and procedure, includes an introduction by Thomas A. Green.

Now regarded as a literary, as well as a legal classic, Blackstone's Commentaries brilliantly laid out the system of English law in the mid-eighteenth century, demonstrating that as a system of justice, it was comparable to Roman law and the civil law of the Continent. Ironically, the work also revealed to the colonists the insufficiencies of the system and became a model for the legal system of the fledgling American nation in 1789. Supplemented with commentary by experts in the field, these classic facsimile volumes belong on every lawyer's bookshelves.

Volume I: Of the Rights of Persons (1765)
Volume II: Of the Rights of Things (1766)
Volume III: Of Private Wrongs (1768)
Volume IV: Of Public Wrongs (1769)