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Re-interpreting Blackstone's Commentaries: A Seminal Text in National and International Contexts

Re-interpreting Blackstone's Commentaries: A Seminal Text in National and International Contexts

Author: Wilfrid Prest
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509913862

Published In: February 2017
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781849465380

List Price: RMB 377.41

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Description
Contents

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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, 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 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 USA more generally (John W Cairns and Steven 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).

Preface v

List of Contributors ix

List of Illustrations xi

List of Figures and Tables xii

List of Abbreviations xiii

I WORDS AND VISIONS

Blackstone’s ‘Stutter’: the (Anti)Performance of the Commentaries 3

Kathryn Temple

William Blackstone: Courtroom Dramatist? 21

Simon Stern

Blackstone as Draughtsman: Picturing the Law 31

Cristina S Martinez