Search

17 August 2016

BOOK: Wilfrid PREST (ed.), The Oxford Edition of Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England. Book I, II, III, and IV. Oxford/New York: OUP, 2016, 1784 p. ISBN 9780199601035, £ 125


(image source: OUP)



The Legal History Blog reported the publication of the Oxford Edition of Blackstone (4 volumes, 1784 pages).

Book description:
Oxford's variorum edition of William Blackstone's seminal treatise on the common law of England and Wales offers the definitive account of the Commentaries' development in a modern format. For the first time it is possible to trace the evolution of English law and Blackstone's thought through the eight editions of Blackstone's lifetime, and the authorial corrections of the posthumous ninth edition. Introductions by the general editor and the volume editors set the Commentaries in their historical context, examining Blackstone's distinctive view of the common law, and editorial notes throughout the four volumes assist the modern reader in understanding this key text in the Anglo-American common law tradition.

Book I: Of the Rights of PeopleVolume Editor: David Lemmings

Book II: Of the Rights of ThingsVolume Editor: Simon Stern

Book III: Of Private WrongsVolume Editor: Thomas P. Gallanis

Book IV: Of Public WrongsVolume Editor: Ruth Paley
On the editor:
Edited by Wilfrid Prest, University of Adelaide
Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) was a prominent public figure in the eighteenth century. Judge and jurist, barrister and politician, his work has had a profound influence on the Anglo-American legal tradition. The first Vinerian Professor of English Law, Blackstone was a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas at the time of his death. The Commentaries published in eight editions in his lifetime, and a posthumous ninth edition in 1783.

Contributors:

Wilfrid Prest is Professor Emeritus of Law and History at the University of Adelaide. He is the author of William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century (OUP 2012) as well as many other works of legal history.
 More information here.

No comments: