William Blackstone

The settlement of 1688 and 1689 had bound the crown to Parliament and curbed what a king could do on his own.

And by 1765, William Blackstone, the English legal writer who could describe Parliament's authority as sovereign and uncontrollable, the Declaratory Act applied that doctrine to the colonies.

Otis himself conceded in 1764 that the colonists must obey and that the Loyalists' warning that independence would divide Americans came true.

Down to the property seized from the Loyalists under laws passed in the name of liberty.

But the people who were arguing that the law is king in a republic, and even that the law applied it to the monarch, were saying, no, God's laws are supreme over all.

In fact, the most quoted judicial scholar and legal analyst by the founding fathers was a guy by the name of Sir William Blackstone.

He wrote commentaries on the laws of England, which for centuries in this country was considered the bedrock of American jurisprudence.

And what he said is the Bible is the ultimate authority of all law.

And all of these various sorts of old corporations are a practical attempt to solve a surprisingly lofty conundrum, that of immortality.

The British jurist William Blackstone wrote about corporations just before the American Revolution.

We have hitherto considered persons in their natural capacities and have treated of their rights and duties.

But as all personal rights die with the person and as the necessary forms of investing a series of individuals one after another with the same identical rights would be very inconvenient if not impractical, it has been found necessary, when it is for the advantage of the public, to have any particular rights kept on foot and continued to constitute artificial persons.

But a different kind of draft, mind you.

What about criminal prosecution? If I, Andrew Heaton, commit arson again, I can be hauled into court.

If corporations are people, William Blackstone, shouldn't they be criminally liable if they knowingly put poisonous chemicals and products or release dangerous products to the market? Well, if you think corporate personhood ought to mean corporations should be prosecutable, you will be happy to know they can.

You can prosecute corporations in criminal court.

Very influential for, like, separation of powers, checks and balances thoughts.

Uh, the second most cited was William Blackstone.

7.9% of all the quotes came from him, and, and he was significant for legal formation in our nation.

Third most cited was John Locke, who did the Two Treatises of Government.

On the way out, when you turn around and you walk out the door, you see a quote by a guy by the name of John Locke.

And John Locke was, uh, also a contributor to English common law in America, along with William Blackstone and Charles de Montesquieu.

This, this quote says, "Where God's law ends, tyranny begins." So who reigns, friends? It's when people become rebels to God's law that kings, they do what? They become tyrants through policy.

And again, that's all we have to do, is open our eyes to see what's going on in this country today.

Exodus 14, 28 comes to my aid.

Read it when you get a moment.

So this now leads us to a guy named William Blackstone, English common law.

I got his books behind me.

In the state of Minnesota, we have a huge picture above the heads of the Supreme Court, and what it is, it's a huge picture of Moses awaiting the divine law.

On the way out, when you turn around and you walk out the door, you see a quote by a guy by the name of John Locke, and John Locke was, uh, also a contributor to English common law in America, along with William Blackstone and Charles de Montesquieu.

This, this quote says, "Where God's law ends, tyranny begins." So who reigns, friends? It's when people become rebels to God's law that kings, they do what? They become tyrants through policy.

And again, that's all we have to do, is open our eyes to see what's going on in this country today.

We've come a long way historically in the West.

You go as far back as English constitutionalism and, uh, William Blackstone's, uh, commentaries on laws of England, uh, it's very clear that suicide, the act of suicide in general, was a wrongful act.

And, you know, you can take into account, uh, mental health situations, but that's not the discussion we're having today, which, which is physician-assisted suicide and the legalization thereof.

So just share with us how far we've come as a culture.