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
To believe that will has power over potentiality, that the passage to actuality is the result of a decision that puts an end to the ambiguity of potentiality (which is always potentiality to do and not to do) β this is the perpetual illusion of morality.
When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us.
Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.
we follow One who stood and wept at the grave of Lazarus-not surely, because He was grieved that Mary and Martha wept, and sorrowed for their lack of faith (though some thus interpret) but because death, the punishment of sin, is even more horrible in his eyes than in ours.
We know so little. Our judgment is so limited. We judge the Lord's ways from our own narrow view.
You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.