Dec 2, 2012

Why You Can’t Understand the Constitution Without the Common Law

Liberty Forum
by James Stoner / 3 Comments

Filed Under: Commentaries on the Law of England, Common Law, Constitution, Doctor Bonham's Case, H.L.A. Hart, John Dickinson, Magna Charta, Natural Rights, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, Originalism, William Blackstone

Why, in a country with a written Constitution and a founding document (the Declaration of Independence) that is grounded on natural right, should we pay attention to the common law?  Wrongly understood, as it usually is today, common law is …

Responses

• Peeling Back the Common Law: Reflections Stirred by James Stoner on the Common Law
  

  by Hadley Arkes / 0 Comments

  Filed Under: Common Law, Constitution, James Stoner, James Wilson, Natural Right, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Roe v. Wade, state debt, Thomas Reid's Active Powers of the Human Mind

• Common Law Constitutionalism: Tradition v. Interpretive Process
  

  by John McGinnis / 1 Comment

  Filed Under: Common Law, federal common law, Federalism, Originalism, Supermajority Rules