The ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' (commonly, but informally known as ''Blackstone's Commentaries'') are an influential 18th-century
treatise
A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...
on the
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
of England by Sir
William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, Justice (title), justice, and Tory (British political party), Tory politician most noted for his ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'', which became the best-k ...
, originally published by the
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
at
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
between 1765 and 1769. The work is divided into four volumes, on the rights of persons, the rights of things, of private wrongs and of public wrongs.
The ''Commentaries'' were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the
American legal system
The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. The common law of England has relied on
precedent
Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...
more than
statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
and codifications and has been far less amenable than the
civil law, developed from the
Roman law
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I.
Roman law also den ...
, to the needs of a treatise. The ''Commentaries'' were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. As such, they were used in the training of American and British lawyers long after the death of Blackstone.
The ''Commentaries'' are often quoted as the definitive pre-
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society.
Definition
The term—bot ...
source of common law by
United States courts.
Opinions
An opinion is a judgement, Point of view (philosophy), viewpoint, or Proposition, statement that is not conclusive, as opposed to facts, which are truth, true statements.
Definition
A given opinion may deal with subjectivity, subjective matters ...
of the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
quote from Blackstone's work whenever they wish to engage in historical discussion that goes back that far, or farther (for example, when discussing the intent of the
Framers
The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. While the convention was initially intended to revise the league of states and devise the first system of Federal government of the United States, fede ...
of the Constitution). The book was famously used as the key in
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...
's
Arnold cipher, which he used to communicate secretly with his conspirator
John André
Major John André (May 2, 1750 – October 2, 1780) was a British Army officer who served as the head of Britain's intelligence operations during the American War for Independence. In September 1780, he negotiated with Continental Army offic ...
during their plot to betray the
Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...
during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
.
Publication history
In 1765 Blackstone announced his resignation from the
Vinerian Chair, effective after his 1766 lectures. These were divided into two 14-lecture series, on "private wrongs" and "public wrongs" delivered between 12 February and 24 April. At this point Blackstone had published nothing new since ''A Treatise on the Law of Descents in Fee Simple'' in 1759. The decision to resign was most likely due to the increasing demands of his legal practice and the reduced profit from the lectures, which, after peaking at £340 in 1762, dropped to £239 a year later and to £203 for the final round of lectures in 1765–66.
In response, Blackstone decided to publish a new book – ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. The first volume was published in November 1765, bringing the author £1,600; the full work would eventually bring in over £14,000.
Owen Ruffhead described Volume I as "masterly", noting that "Mr Blackstone is perhaps the first who has treated the body of the law in a liberal, elegant and constitutional manner. A vein of good sense and moderation runs through every page". Every copy was sold within six months, and the second and third volumes, published in October 1766 and June 1768, received a similar reception. The fourth and final volume appeared in 1769, dealing with criminal law. With the financial success of the ''Commentaries'', Blackstone moved in 1768 from his London property in Carey Fields to No. 55 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Neighbours included the
Sardinian ambassador,
Sir Walter Rawlinson
Sir Walter Rawlinson (29 May 1734''London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812'' – 13 March 1805) was a British banker and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1790.
Early life
Rawlinson ...
,
Lord Northington,
John Morton and the
Third Earl of Abingdon, making it an appropriate house for a "great and able Lawyer".
Blackstone's treatise was republished in 1770, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1778 and in a posthumous edition in 1783. Reprints of the first edition, intended for practical use rather than antiquary interest, were published until the 1870s in England and Wales, and a working version by
Henry John Stephen
Henry John Stephen (1787–1864) was an English legal writer and serjeant-at-law.
Life
Born on St Kitts in the West Indies on 18 January 1787, he was the second son of James Stephen (1758–1832); James Stephen (1789–1859) and George Step ...
, first published in 1841, was reprinted until after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The first American edition was produced in 1772; prior to this, over 1,000 copies had already been sold in the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America.
The Thirteen C ...
.
Contents
The Rights of Persons
The Rights of Persons is the first volume in the four part series that is the Commentaries. Divided into 18 chapters, it is largely concerned with the rights of individuals; the rights of
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
; the rights and title of the
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
; the
royal family
A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family.
The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...
; the councils belonging to the King; kingly duties; the
royal prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, Privilege (law), privilege, and immunity recognised in common law (and sometimes in Civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy) as belonging to the monarch, so ...
; the King's revenue; subordinate magistrates; the people (aliens, denizens, and natives); the rights of the clergy; the civil state; the military and maritime states; the relationship between master and servant (in modern-day terminology,
employer
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any ot ...
and
employee
Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...
), husband and wife, parent and child,
guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...
and
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
; and finally corporates.
The Rights of Things
The Rights of Things, Blackstone's longest volume, deals with
property
Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, re ...
. The vast majority of the text is devoted to
real property
In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, refers to parcels of land and any associated structures which are the property of a person. For a structure (also called an Land i ...
, this being the most valuable sort in the
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
law upon which the English law of land was founded. Property in
chattels was already beginning to overshadow property in land, but its law lacked the complex feudal background of the common law of land, and was not dealt with nearly as extensively by Blackstone.
Of Private Wrongs
Of Private Wrongs dealt with
tort
A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with cri ...
s as they existed in Blackstone's time. The various methods of
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...
that existed at civil law were also dealt with in this volume, as were the jurisdictions of the several courts, from the lowest to the highest. Almost as an afterthought, Blackstone also adds a brief chapter on
equity, the parallel legal system that existed in English law at the time, seeking to address wrongs that the common law did not handle.
Of Public Wrongs
Of Public Wrongs is Blackstone's treatise on
criminal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and Well-being, welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal l ...
. Here, Blackstone seeks to explain how the criminal laws of England were just and merciful, despite becoming later known as the
Bloody Code
The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which mandated the death penalty for a wide range of crimes. It was not referred to by this name in its own time; the name was g ...
for their severity. He does however accept that "It is a melancholy truth, that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less than an hundred and sixty have been declared by Act of Parliament to be felonious without
benefit of clergy
In English law, the benefit of clergy ( Law Latin: ''privilegium clericale'') was originally a provision by which clergymen accused of a crime could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ec ...
; or, in other words, to be worthy of instant death". Blackstone frequently resorted to assuring his reader that the laws as written were not always enforced, and that the King's power of
pardon
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
could be exercised to correct any hardships or injustices.
Legacy
Blackstone for the first time made the
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
readable and understandable by non-lawyers. At first, his ''Commentaries'' were hotly contested, some seeing in them an evil or covert attempt to reduce or
codify the common law which was anathema to common law purists.
For decades, a study of the ''Commentaries'' was required reading for all first year law students.
Lord Avonmore said of Blackstone: "He it was who first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton and clothed it with life, colour and complexion. He embraced the cold statue and by his touch, it grew into youth, health and beauty."
, who had been a critic of the ''Commentaries'' when they were first published, credits Blackstone with having "taught jurisprudence to speak the language of the scholar and the gentleman; put a polish upon that rugged science, cleansed her from the dust and cobwebs of the office and, if he has not enriched her with that precision which is drawn only from the sterling treasury of the sciences, has decked her out to advantage from the
toilet
A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting p ...
of classical erudition, enlivened her with metaphors and allusions and sent her abroad in some measure to instruct."
While there is much valuable historical information in the ''Commentaries'', later historians have tended to be somewhat critical of the uses Blackstone made of
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
. the easy and contradictory assurance that England's current political settlement represented the optimal state of rational and just government, while claiming simultaneously that this optimal state was an ideal that had always existed in the past, despite the many struggles in England's history between overreaching kings and wayward parliaments.
But Blackstone's chief contribution was to create a succinct, readable, and above all ''handy'' epitome of the common law tradition. While ''useful'' in England, Blackstone's text answered an urgent need in the developing United States and Canada. In the United States, the common law tradition was being spread into frontier areas, but it was not feasible for
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
s and
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
s to carry around the large libraries that contained the common law
precedent
Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...
s. The four volumes of Blackstone put the gist of that tradition in portable form. (A modern paperback printing of the four volumes total about 1500 pages.) They were required reading for most lawyers in the Colonies, and for many, they were the only reading.
Two decades after their publication, Blackstone's ''Commentaries'' were the focus of a mocking polemic by
, called ''Fragment on Government''. This dissection of Blackstone's first book made Bentham's name notorious, though it was originally published anonymously.
In 1841–1845,
Henry John Stephen
Henry John Stephen (1787–1864) was an English legal writer and serjeant-at-law.
Life
Born on St Kitts in the West Indies on 18 January 1787, he was the second son of James Stephen (1758–1832); James Stephen (1789–1859) and George Step ...
published ''New Commentaries on the Laws of England (Partly Founded on Blackstone)'', whose structure was modelled on Blackstone's work and which liberally quoted from it; much of Blackstone's text remained as late as 1914 in the 16th edition of ''Stephen's Commentaries''; in 1922 under
Edward Jenks most of the text was rewritten but the structure was realigned more closely to Blackstone's original.
Quotations
Notable editions
''A bibliography of The Commentaries of the Laws of England from Legal Bibliography''(1905)
* The Fifth Edition, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, MDCCLXXIII., printed for William Strahan, Thomas Cadell, and Daniel Prince. 8vo., 4 vols.
* The Twelfth Edition (with portraits of the judges), with the last corrections of the author and with notes and additions by Edward Christian, Esq., Barrister at Law and Professor of the Laws of England in the University of Cambridge, London, 1793–1795. 4 vols., 8vo.
* Blackstone's ''Commentaries'':
with notes of reference, to the Constitution and laws, of the federal government of the United States, and of the Commonwealth of Virginia : in five volumes, with an appendix to each volume, containing short tracts upon such subjects as appeared necessary to form a connected view of the laws of Virginia, as a member of the federal union / by St. George Tucker.
* The Sixteenth Edition, with notes by
J. F. Archbold, (added to Christian's), London, 1811. 4 vols., royal 8vo.
* The Sixteenth Edition, with notes by J. T. Coleridge, London, 1825.
* The Eighteenth Edition, with notes by J. Chitty, London, 1826 (often reprinted in America).
* 'Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books''] / by Sir William Blackstone ...; together with such notes of enduring value as have been published in the several English editions; and also, a copious analysis of the contents; and additional notes with references to English and American decisions and statutes, to date, which illustrate or change the law of the text; also a full table of abbreviations and some considerations regarding the study of the law, by Thomas M. Cooley. Published: Chicago: Callaghan and Co., 1871, Second Edition 1876, Third Edition 1884, Fourth Edition edited by James DeWitt Andrews 1899.
* ''Commentaries on the laws of England'' / by Sir William Blackstone, KT. Edition Information: From the author's 8th ed., 1778 / edited for American lawyers by William G. Hammond; with copious notes, and references to all comments on the text in the American reports, 1787–1890. Published: San Francisco : Bancroft–Whitney Company, 1890. Description: 4 vols.
* ''Commentaries on the Laws of England in Four Books'' / by Sir William Blackstone. Notes selected from the editions of Archibold, Christian, Coleridge, Chitty, Stewart, Kerr, and others, Barron Field's Analysis, and Additional Notes, and a Life of the Author by George Sharswood. In Two Volumes. (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1893).
* ''Commentaries on the laws of England : in four books'' / by Sir William Blackstone; with notes selected from the editions of Archbold, Christian, Coleridge, Chitty, Stewart, Kerr, and others; and in addition, notes and references to all text books and decisions wherein the ''Commentaries'' have been cited, and all statutes modifying the text by William Draper Lewis. Published: Philadelphia : Rees Welsh and Company, 1897. Description: 4 vols.
* ''Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone'', Kt.; edited by William Carey Jones. Published: San Francisco : Bancroft–Whitney, 1915–16. Description: 2 vols.
* ''Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England''; edited by Wayne Morrison. 4 vols. Published: London: Routledge–Cavendish; London, England: 2001. Description 4 vols.
* .
* Online: via Yale University'
Avalon Project
Abridgements
Ralph Thomas in ''
Notes & Queries'', 4th Series, II August 8, 1868 gave the following list of the abridgements of Blackstone's ''Commentaries''.
# ''A Summary of the Constitutional Law of England: being an Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries''. By the Rev. Dr. J. Trusler, 1788, 12mo; 228 and index. "Everything in Blackstone necessary for the general reader is here comprised ... and nothing omitted but what is peculiarly adapted to the profession of a lawyer." (Advertisement.)
# ''The Commentaries of Sir W. Blackstone, Knight, on the Law and Constitution of England, carefully abridged in a new manner, and continued down to the present time'', by Wm. Curry 1796, 8vo; viii. contents, 566. 2nd edit. 1809. Consists of selections of the most essential parts in the words of the author.
# ''Commentaries on the Law of England, principally in the order, and comprising the whole substance, of Commentaries of Sir W. Blackstone''.
y J. Addams
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seven ...
1819, 8vo.
# ''An Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries''. By
John Gifford seud. i. e. Edward Foss 1821, 8vo. See No. VI.
# ''An Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, in a series of Letters from a Father to his Daughter, chiefly intended for the Use and Advancement of Female Education''. By a Barrister at Law, F.R., F.A., and F.L.S.
ir E. E. Wilmot 1822, 12mo; viii. 304.
# Same by Sir J. E.E. W. . . . A new edition
he 2ndcorrected ... by his son Sir J. E. E. W. 3rd edit. 1855.
# ''Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, abridged for the Use of Students'', &c. By John Gifford, author of the Life of . . . . Pitt
seud. John Richards Green 1823, 8vo.
# The British Constitution; or, an Epitome of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, for the Use of Schools. By Vincent Wanostrocht, LL.D., Alfred House Academy, Camberwell, 1823, 12mo; xi. 845.
# An American Abridgment, 1832.
r Thomas may be referring to John Anthon's ''An Analytical Abridgment of the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone on the laws of England'': in four books: together with an analytical synopsis of each book, printed and published by Isaac Riley in 1809, second edition 1832.]
# ''Select Extracts from Blackstone's Commentaries, carefully adapted to the Use of Schools and Young Persons; with a Glossary, Questions, and Notes, and a General Introduction''. By Samuel Warren, 1837, 12mo; xxvi. 428 (no index).
# ''Commentaries on the Laws of England, in the Order and Compiled from the Text of Blackstone, and embracing the New Statutes and Alterations to the present time''. By J. Bethune Bayly, of the Middle Temple, 1840, roy. 8vo; li. 700.
# A Synopsis of Blackstone's ''Commentaries''. London.
847 A large single sheet in folio.
# ''The Law Student's First Book'', being chiefly an Abridgment of Blackstone's ''Commentaries''; incorporating the Alterations in the Law down to the present time. By the Editors of ''The Law Student's Magazine'', 1848, 12mo; xxiv. 508, xvi.
# Blackstone's ''Commentaries'' systematically arranged and adapted to the existing State of the Law and Constitution, with great Additions. By S. Warren, . . . 1855, 8vo 2nd edition, 1856. See IX. The original portions of Blackstone are indicated.
# ''The Student's Blackstone''; Selections from the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. By Sir W. B.; being those portions of the work which relate to the British Constitution and the Rights of Persons. By R. M. Kerr, 1858, 12mo; xix. 575. ''The Student's Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England'', in four books, by Sir W. Blackstone, &c., abridged ... By R. M. Kerr. 2nd edit. 1865, 12mo; xx. 612.
Other abridgments include:
*Blackstone economized: being a compendium of the laws of England to the present time by Sir William Blackstone, David Mitchell Aird Published: London: Longmans, Green, & Co.: 1878
*''Essentials of the Law: A Review of Blackstone's Commentaries for the Use of Students at Law'' (1882) Author: Marshall Davis Ewell Published: Boston: Charles C Soule: 1882
*''Selections from Blackstone'' edited by William Carey Jones Published: San Francisco: Bancroft–Whitney Co. 1926.
*''The Sovereignty of the Law: Selections from Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England'' edited by Gareth Jones, Published: London: Macmillan, 1973
See also
*
Books of authority
Books of authority is a term used by legal writers to refer to a number of early legal textbooks that are excepted from the rule that textbooks (and all books other than statute or law report) are not treated as authorities by the courts of England ...
Sources
*
*
Boorstin, Daniel J., ''The Mysterious Science of the Law: An Essay on Blackstone's Commentaries'' (Univ. Chicago, 1996).
*
*
*Stacey, Robert D. ''Sir William Blackstone and the Common Law: Blackstone's Legacy to America'' (ACW, 2003)
References
External links
* ''Commentaries on the laws of England'', original edition 1765
*
Book the first of the rights of persons (1765)
*
Book the second of the rights of things (1766)
*
Book the third of private wrongs
*
Book the fourth of public wrongs
* ''The commentaries on the laws of England of Sir William Blackstone'' (1876, London : John Murray. Edited by
Robert Malcolm Kerr)
– volume 1
– volume 2
* ''Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books'', edited by Thomas Cooley, Callaghan & Co, 1884—Third Edition
Books 1 & 2Books 3 & 4''The Student's Blackstone Adapted and Abridged'' by R M N Kerr, William Clowes & Son, 1885—Ninth Edition*
{{Authority control
1765 in literature
1765 introductions
Book series introduced in the 1760s
1765 non-fiction books
1766 non-fiction books
1768 non-fiction books
1769 non-fiction books
English law
Legal history of England
Legal treatises
Whig history
Political philosophy literature
Works by William Blackstone
Books about England