Sir Edward Coke (pronounced "cook") (1 February 1552 – 3 September 1634), was an early English colonial entrepreneur and jurist whose writings on the English common law were the definitive legal texts for some 300 years. Events 1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Events 36 BC - In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompeius England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome JURIST is an online legal news service hosted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, written by founder Professor Bernard Hibbitts and a staff of more than English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of Common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countriesand the
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Biography
Coke was born at Mileham, Norfolk the son of a London barrister from a Norfolk family. Mileham is a village mid way between East Dereham and Fakenham in Norfolk. Norfolk (ˈnɔrfək is a low-lying county in East Anglia, England, United Kingdom. He was educated at Norwich School and then Trinity College, Cambridge. Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. In 1585, in the middle of the deserted village of Godwick, Edward Coke built a fine brick manor house, having purchased the estate in 1580. Godwick is a deserted village in the county of Norfolk. It location was south of Fakenham between the villages of Tittleshall and Whissonsett (The ruins of the house, which was E shaped with an impressive two storey porch and windows, was pulled down in 1962. ) Coke became a Member of Parliament in 1589, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1592 and was appointed England's Attorney General in 1593, a post for which he was in competition with his rival Sir Francis Bacon. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland In most Common law jurisdictions the Attorney General, or Attorney-General, is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban KC QC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626 was an English Philosopher, Statesman, and author During this period, he was a zealous prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh and of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. Sir Walter Raleigh or Ralegh (c 1552 – 29 October 1618 was a famed English writer Poet, Soldier, Courtier and Explorer The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time was a failed Assassination attempt by a group of provincial English He was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1606. The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English In 1613, he was elevated to Chief Justice of the King's Bench, where he continued his defence of the English common law against the encroachment by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, local courts controlled by the aristocracy, and meddling by the King. Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive
Bacon encouraged the King to remove Coke as Chief Justice in 1616, for refusing to hold a case in abeyance until the King could give his own opinion in it. In 1620 Coke became an MP again, and proved so troublesome to the crown that he was imprisoned, along with other Parliamentary leaders, for six months. In 1628, he was one of the drafters of the Petition of Right. The Petition of Right 1628 was produced by the English Parliament in the run-up to the English Civil War. In 1606, Coke apparently helped write the charter of the Virginia Company, a private venture granted a royal charter to found settlements in North America. The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I in 1606 with the purposes of establishing He became director of the London Company, one of the two branches of the Virginia Company. The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English Joint stock company established by royal charter by One of Coke's greatest contributions to the law was to interpret Magna Carta to apply not only to the protection of nobles but also to all subjects of the crown equally, which effectively established the law as a guarantor of rights among all subjects against even Parliament and the King. Magna Carta ( Latin for Great Charter, literally " Great Paper " also called Magna Carta Libertatum ( Great Charter of Freedoms He famously asserted: "Magna Carta is such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign. "
Famous judgments
- Dr. Bonham's Case - this has been much argued about by historians but is seen by lawyers as the origin of judicial review of legislation. Dr Bonham's Case (1610 is a legal case decided by Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of England 's Court of Common Pleas, in which he arguably Judicial review is the power of the courts to annul the acts of the executive and/or the legislative power where it finds them incompatible with a higher norm The Case – arising from Dr Bonham’s imprisonment by the President and Censors of the College of Physicians of London – considered whether English Courts could define the limits of the legislative power vested in the Parliament at Westminster.
- Calvin's Case - Coke's opinion established that subjects of Scotland born after King James VI became James I of England, could hold land in England as well as in Scotland, because both Scots and Englishmen owed allegiance to the same king. James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625 was King of Scotland as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James This case would be important in supporting the idea that English colonists in North America would have the rights of Englishmen. ". . . . However, in 1608, Sir Edward Coke, in his capacity as Lord Chief Justice, offered a ruling in Calvin's Case which went beyond the issue at hand: whether a Scotsman could seek justice at an English Court. The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was historically the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor. Coke distinguished between aliens from nations at war with England and friendly aliens, those from nations in league with England. Friendly aliens could have recourse to English courts. But he also ruled that with "all infidels" (i. e. those from non-Christian nations) there could be no peace, and a state of perpetual hostility would exist between them and Christians. "[1]
- Semayne's Case - this was the origin of many of the rights to freedom from arbitrary searches
- Heydon's case - on the 'mischief' rule of statutory interpretation
- Case of the Monopolies - this is an important case for competition law (or "antitrust"), concerning a patent on the royal playing cards. Heydon's Case (1584,76 ER 637 Pasch 26 Eliz plea began 20 Eliz Rot 140 is a landmark case that first used the Mischief rule for interpretation Darcy v Allein, 77 Eng Rep 1260 (King's Bench 1603) (often mis-spelled as Darcy v Coke's opinion was that such a monopoly would be contrary to the law.
- Dumpor's Case - this set forth a new rule for assignment of leasehold interests
- Sutton's Hospital case - a seminal case in corporations law, notable for its characterisation of corporations
- William Aldred's Case - which may be the birth of environmental law
- Prohibitions del Roi - published posthumously, these detail his discussion with the King in which he (briefly) convinced a reluctant James that the law is based on "artificial reason" and must be left to lawyers to decide, rather than to the monarch. The Rule in Dumpor's Case is a Common law rule of Property law first set forth by Sir Edward Coke in 1578 ( 4 Coke 1196) An assignment (Latin cessio) is a term used with similar meanings in the Law of Contracts and in the law of Real estate. Leasehold is a form of property tenure where one party buys the right to occupy land or a building for a given length of time The London Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London, England, to the north of what is now Charterhouse Square. A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business Aldred's Case (1610 9 Co Rep 57b (1610 77 ER 816 is an often-cited Seventeenth century case dealing with nuisance in English common law.
Political influence
Copies of Coke's writings arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620, and every lawyer in the English colonies and early United States was trained from Coke's books, particularly his Reports and Institutes (see #References section below), the most famous of which was his property book, The First Institute of the Lawes of England, or a Commentary on Littleton (a reference to 15th century English jurist Thomas de Littleton). The Mayflower was the famous Ship that transported the English Separatists better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England The Institutes of the Lawes of England are a series of legal treatises written by Edward Coke in the 17th century This article is about the 15th-century jurist for the 18th-century statesman see Thomas Littleton. Coke was a patron and mentor for American theologian and dissident Roger Williams and assisted with his education at Sutton's Hospital and at the University of Cambridge, Pembroke College. Roger Williams ( December 21, 1603 &ndash April 1, 1683) was an English theologian, a notable proponent of Religious Both John Adams and Patrick Henry argued from Coke treatises to support their revolutionary positions against the Mother Country in the 1770s. John Adams (October 30 1735 July 4 1826 was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. Patrick Henry ( May 29, 1736 June 6, 1799) was a prominent figure in the American Revolution, known and remembered for his " Events and trends For more events see 18th century United States Declaration of Independence ratified by the Continental Congress
Under Coke's leadership, in 1628 the House of Commons forced Charles I of England to accept Coke's Petition of Right by withholding the revenues the king wanted until he capitulated. Charles I, (19 November 1600 &ndash 30 January 1649 was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. The Petition of Right was the forerunner of the English Bill of Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights. The Petition of Right 1628 was produced by the English Parliament in the run-up to the English Civil War. The Bill of Rights (or Declaration of Rights) is an act of the Parliament of England, with the Long title An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties In the United States the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known
See also
Notes
- ^ From Wikipedia article on the London Company". English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of Common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countriesand the The United Kingdom has three Legal systems. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in The Institutes of the Lawes of England are a series of legal treatises written by Edward Coke in the 17th century The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English Joint stock company established by royal charter by
References
- The Lion and the Throne, a biography (ISBN 0-316-10393-4) of Coke by Catherine Drinker Bowen, won the National Book Award. Catherine Drinker Bowen (January 1 1897 in Haverford PA as Catherine Drinker – November 1 1973 in Haverford was an American biographer The National Book Awards are among the most eminent literary prizes in the United States.
- Three volumes of Coke's writings, with translations, notes, commentary, and an introduction, have been published as The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke, edited by Steve Sheppard (ISBN 0-86597-316-4). They are available individually as PDF files: vol 1 (pp. 1–520), vol 2 (pp. 521–1184), vol 3 (pp. 1185–1468). These also contain “The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England: Or A Commentary upon Littleton, Not the name of the Author only, but of the Law it selfe”.
- Selected Works of Edward Coke at the Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics, Commentary on English common and statutory law, including the Institutes and the Reports.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Fleming |
Lord Chief Justice 1613–1616 |
Succeeded by Henry Montagu |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Thomas Snagge |
Speaker of the House of Commons 1592–1593 |
Succeeded by Sir Christopher Yelverton |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Coke, Edward |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | English colonial entrepreneur, jurist, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney General |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1552-02-01 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mileham, Norfolk |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1634-09-03 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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