Product Description

5 vols. Originally published: Philadelphia: William Young Birch and Abraham Small, 1803. The American Blackstone. A monumental work of continuing relevance,

this reprint edition is prefaced by a new critical introduction

by Paul Finkelman

President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy, Albany Law School

and David Cobin

Professor, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul Minnesota

Tucker s Blackstone is a key resource for understanding how Americans viewed

English common law in the years following the adoption of the Constitution

and the Bill of Rights. Based on his lectures at the College of William and

Mary, Tucker interprets Blackstone s often antidemocratic viewpoint in an

American context. A strong proponent of the First Amendment, he elaborates

a theory of free speech that is more expansive than in the English tradition.

More recently, Tucker s Blackstone has been cited in numerous constitutional

cases by the U.S. Supreme Court relating to original intent. Reprint of the

rare sole edition.