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4 Sovereign Britain

So said Blackstone (1723 – 1780) in his commentaries on the laws of England:

“The rights or…lib er ties of Eng lish men…con sist pri mar ily in the free en joy ment of per -
sonal se cu rity, of per sonal lib erty and of pri vate prop erty…To vin di cate these rights, when
ac tu ally vi o lated or at tacked, the sub jects of Eng land are en ti tled, in the first place, to the
reg u lar ad min is tra tion and free course of jus tice in the courts of law; next, to the right of pe -
ti tion ing the King and par lia ment for re dress of griev ances; and lastly, to the right of hav ing
and us ing arms for self-pres er va tion and de fense”.

“And all these rights and lib er ties it is our birth right to en joy en tire; un less where the laws of
our coun try have laid them un der nec es sary re straints…so gen tle and mod er ate…that no
man of sense or pro bity would wish to see them slack ened”.

The Magna Carta protected ordinary people:

“And the city of Lon don shall have all its an cient lib er ties and free cus toms… fur ther more,
we de cree and grant that all other cit ies, bor oughs, towns and ports shall have all their lib er -
ties and free cus toms”.

“If any one has been dis pos sessed or re moved by us, with out the le gal judg ment of his peers,
from his lands, cas tles, fran chises, or from his right, we will im me di ately re store them to
him; and if a dis pute arise over this, then let it be de cided by the five and twenty bar ons of
whom men tion is made be low in the clause for se cur ing peace”.

The Magna Carta es tab lished the sta bi liz ing in flu ence of the House of Lords and pro vided
means to en sure that a mon arch did not be come a dic ta tor:

“All fines made with us un justly and against the law of the land, shall be en tirely re mit ted, or
else it shall be done con cern ing them ac cord ing to the de ci sion of the five and twenty bar ons
of whom men tion is made be low in the clause for se cur ing the peace, or ac cord ing to the
judg ment of the ma jor ity of the same, …pro vided al ways that if any one or more of the
afore said five and twenty bar ons are in sim i lar suit, they shall be re moved as far as con cerns
this par tic u lar judg ment, oth ers be ing sub sti tuted in their places af ter hav ing been se lected
by the rest of the same five and twenty for this pur pose only, and af ter hav ing been sworn”

and

“Since …we have granted all these con ces sions, de sir ous that they should en joy them in
com plete and firm en dur ance for ever, we give and grant to them the un der writ ten se cu rity,
namely, that the bar ons choose five and twenty bar ons of the king dom, whom so ever they
will, who shall be bound with all their might, to ob serve and hold, and cause to be ob served,
the peace and lib er ties we have granted and con firmed to them by this our pres ent Char ter,
so that if we, or our justiciar, or our bai liffs, or any one of our of fi cers, shall in any thing be at
fault to wards any one, or shall have bro ken any one of the ar ti cles of this peace or of this se -
cu rity, and the of fence be no ti fied to four bar ons of the foresaid five and twenty, the said

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