Re-interpreting Blackstone's Commentaries : a seminal text in national and international contexts / edited by Wilfrid Prest.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Prest, Wilfrid R., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blackstone, William, 1723-1780. Commentaries on the laws of England.

Blackstone, William.

Law--Philosophy.

Law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 p.)

Other Title:

Blackstone's Commentaries

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Portland, Oregon : Hart Publishing, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This collection explores the remarkable impact and continuing influence of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, from the work's original publication in the 1760s down to the present. Contributions by cultural and literary scholars, and intellectual and legal historians trace the manner in which this truly seminal text has established its authority well beyond the author's native shores or his own limited lifespan. In the first section, 'Words and Visions', Kathryn Temple, Simon Stern, Cristina S Martinez and Michael Meehan discuss the Commentaries' aesthetic and literary qualities as factors contributing to the work's unique status in Anglo-American legal culture. The second group of essays traces the nature and dimensions of Blackstone's impact in various jurisdictions outside England, namely Quebec (Michel Morin), Louisiana and the United States more generally (John W Cairns and Stephen M Sheppard), North Carolina (John V Orth) and Australasia (Wilfrid Prest). Finally Horst Dippel, Paul Halliday and Ruth Paley examine aspects of Blackstone's influential constitutional and political ideas, while Jessie Allen concludes the volume with a personal account of 'Reading Blackstone in the Twenty-First Century and the Twenty-First Century through Blackstone'. This volume is a sequel to the well-received collection Blackstone and his Commentaries: Biography, Law, History (Hart Publishing, 2009)

Contents:

Blackstone's 'stutter' : the (anti) performance of the Commentaries

Kathryn Temple

William Blackstone : courtroom dramatist?

Simon Stern

Blackstone as draughtsman : picturing the law

Cristina S. Martinez

Blackstone's Commentaries : England's legal georgic?

Michael Meehan

Blackstone in the bayous : inscribing slavery in the Louisiana Digest of 1808

John W. Cairns

Legal jambalaya

Stephen M. Sheppard

Blackstone and the birth of Quebec's distinct legal culture 1765-1867

Michel Morin

Blackstone's ghost : law and legal education in North Carolina

John V. Orth

Antipodean Blackstone

Wilfrid Prest

Blackstone's king

Paul D. Halliday

Modern Blackstone : the king's two bodies, the Supreme Court and the President

Ruth Paley

Blackstone's Commentaries and the origins of modern constitutionalism

Horst Dippel

Reading Blackstone in the twenty-first century and the twenty-first century through Blackstone

Jessie Allen.

Notes:

"Derived from papers presented at a symposium convened at the University of Adelaide on 6 December 2012, together with additional chapters written after the event by John Orth and the editor."--Preface.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781509913862

1509913866

9781474202091

1474202098

9781782254591

1782254595

OCLC:

1154996279