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The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke
March, 2009Edited by Steve Sheppard
Liberty Fund
For the first time ever, judges, legal scholars, attorneys, historians and students of all sorts can read an anthologized version of the works of the founder of the common law system that paved the way for the U.S. Constitution.
Law professor Steve Sheppard spent the last 12 years researching, compiling and translating original material for "The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke," an anthology that showcases the original works of a man who was chief justice, Parliament leader and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. Coke lived during a turbulent time, when feudal practices were giving way to a merchant-based economy, and European nations were colonizing far away lands.
Coke wrote legal treatises on topics that continue to have modern-day relevance, including environmental issues, monopolies and private property. He was the first lawyer to argue that the law protects people's rights against the state and that law cannot be overridden by the king, even during war time. For centuries, the world has read Sir Francis Bacon, a contemporary of Coke's who Sheppard concedes may have written more accessible prose.
"But he didn't change the world as much as Coke did," he said.
