It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.
That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote asserts that in the English legal system, the monarchy cannot commit a legal wrong, emphasizing the principle of sovereign immunity.
William Blackstone's quote highlights a core tenet of the English constitution, known as 'sovereign immunity.' This principle posits that the monarch is above the law, providing a foundation for the legal system where the king's decrees are unchallengeable in court. This concept has significant implications for the relationship between governance and law, influencing how authority is perceived in a constitutional framework.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on constitutional law, a professor might use this quote to illustrate the concept of sovereign immunity.
More from William Blackstone
All quotes βThe public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private rights.
There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property.
Law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people.
No enactment of man can be considered law unless it conforms to the law of God
Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other.
Similar quotes
If America is to be run by the people, it is the people who must think. And we do not need to put on sackcloth and ashes to think. Nor should our minds work like a sundial which records only sunshine. Our thinking must square against some lessons of history, some principles of government and morals, if we would preserve the rights and dignity of men to which this nation is dedicated.
You won't discover the limits of the soul, however far you go.
I have a hard time figuring out what kind of box to put me in, too, because I don't know exactly what's going on around me or why. But I need to stay outside of boxes because then I can look at what's inside of them without being part of them.
It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted on by our laws, and have an interest in our laws. They may be considered as making a part, though a degraded part, of the families to which they belong.
Choices, more choices than we like afterward to believe, are made far backward in the innocence of childhood.
Life has never been All or Nothing- it's All and Nothing. Forget the binaries.