I am a law student who read this edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries for a jurisprudence course, and it was a great experience. Blackstone details the inner logic and principles of the common law and why it stands as an equal among Greek, Roman, and civil law. He also systematically details the logic and basis for the law of civil rights, property, civil procedure, and criminal law in England. These sections provided me with a much better understanding of the origin and rationality behind our system of law.

In addition he also explains the historical origins of the common law and the political structure of England’s government at the time just before our nation’s independence and why it had been superior, at that time, to any other form of government in all of Europe in the securing and preservation of human liberty. I highly recommend at least volume I to law students and even to any reader interested in better understanding the origins of our government. His explanations in particular will give you a much better understanding of how English government functioned and how our government distinguished itself in substantial ways from England.

Any scholar, student, or avid reader of political science, law, or history will benefit and enjoy this great literary work.

Ignore the earlier critique of the font, the facsimile of the first edition really transports you back in time and the font is not that difficult to navigate. The only real difference is “f” is used in place of “s” everywhere but in the last letter of words (”greateft” “fortrefs” “fubject” etc.). Generally it’s very clear when the “f” is an “s” although there are a few confusing exceptions (e.g. “wife” is “wise” as in the “wife laws of England…”). The first edition included footnotes where Blackstone cited English, Latin, and Roman works and these are reproduced here as well.

Zip file of the entire book 516 MB

Tags: William Blackstone