In the latest in our ongoing series celebrating the anniversaries of Magna Carta and Simon de Montfort’s Parliament, Professor George Garnett discusses the importance of Sir Edward Coke’s 17th century commentary on Magna Carta…
Sir Edward Coke’s role in English common law is widely acknowledged to be commensurate with that of his near contemporary William Shakespeare in English literature. But in an important sense his influence was far greater. Shakespeare scarcely intruded into the purview of the authorities, which is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to reconstruct his biography. Coke, by contrast, not only held, successively, most of the most important judicial offices in the kingdom, but also, after his sacking by his sovereign in 1616, became the principal legal intelligence behind the burgeoning parliamentary opposition to Stuart innovation. The fury which Coke as a judge had occasionally provoked in James I – on…
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