William Blackstone, Sir | Biography

Sir William Blackstone is recognized as one of the great legal commentators of English law, whose work helped shape the foundations of U.S. criminal and civil law. Blackstone, a British legal scholar, published his major works in the years just preceding the American Revolution. These works have continued to be studied for their analysis of English common law.

Blackstone was born on July 10, 1723, in London, England. He attended Oxford University, where he studied mathematics and logic. Blackstone received a civil law degree in 1745 and became a barrister in 1746. However, his first years in legal practice were not successful. Therefore, he returned to Oxford and earned a doctor of civil law in 1750.

In 1751, Blackstone accepted an appointment on the Chancellor's Court, which was a court of equity rather than of law. His sojourn was brief, due to his growing interest in the history and principles of common law. He began to lecture on the common law in 1753 and two years later he resigned from the bench to teach law at Oxford. In 1757, Blackstone published his first book, An Analysis of the Laws of England, which was a digested version of his lectures. His growing eminence in a field he largely created led to his appointment in 1758 as chair of common law.

His academic success propelled Blackstone into politics, yet this new path produced mixed results. Elected to Parliament in 1761, Blackstone proved to be an ineffective and at times uninterested member. He channeled his energies into debates over legal issues but after seven years, he left the legislature and returned to his scholarly pursuits.

His return was necessitated by his desire to complete a massive scholarly undertaking, an analysis of English common law. In 1765 he published the first of four volumes of Commentaries on the Laws of England. He published the other three over the course of the next four years. These commentaries were the first attempt to state the entire body of the common law that had been created by the English courts. They remain the most comprehensive survey of the English law ever compiled by a single author.

The volumes systematically examined the common law as it existed in Blackstone's time. His analysis was based on the concept of natural law, which argues that there are certain unchanging principles that have been given to human beings by nature or God. In his writings, Blackstone sought to categorize the law into the rights of persons and the rights of things. Apart from these general categories, he examined the fields of criminal law and torts. In addition, he sought to explain and at times justify English laws and institutions by examining their history.

The Commentaries had a great influence on American law because the common law of England was incorporated into the legal systems of the colonies. Blackstone's summaries made the legal system accessible to the educated class of the colonies and gave them a common text to rely on. Dissatisfaction with the common law restrictions on freedom of speech and the press was an important aspect of the growing resentment of British rule. Blackstone's work stimulated intellectual debate in the colonies and played a role in causing the American Revolution. However, Thomas Jefferson believed that Blackstone and his followers were "Tories" and that he was a negative influence on America.

Though Blackstone's four-volume work was an immediate critical success, he did have contemporary critics. Some argued that he had constructed an elegant system of law that did not exist in reality. Others argued that he was not a rigorous thinker. Jeremy Bentham, a nineteenth century English Utilitarian philosopher, was Blackstone's most savage critic. He criticized Blackstone for his perception that English law needed no improvement and for his imprecise analysis of the historical and social factors underlying systems of justice.

Blackstone's work, which was periodically updated by American editors, constituted a major source of law for the first 50 years of the Republic. The Commentaries were important because of their intrinsic value and because they were the only legal treatises readily available during that period of U.S. history. They were the primary reference tools for lawyers and judges into the nineteenth century because the appellate courts did not regularly submit their opinions for publication in bound volumes. Although there were court reporters, their records of decisions were incomplete and sporadic. Moreover, few attorneys could afford a comprehensive library.

As the U.S. legal system developed in the nineteenth century, the influence of Blackstone began to wane. The reported decisions of appellate courts became more accessible, but it was the growing influence of state legislatures that changed the course of American law. As legislatures enacted more statutes, the reliance on judge-made common law began to decline. Laws were passed that codified court decisions, thus shifting the analysis to laws rather than past court cases. Although practicing attorneys no longer cite Blackstone, he remains a revered figure in U.S. law.

In 1770, Blackstone became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and was knighted. He died on February 14, 1780, in London.