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Edward Coke Quotes

Sir Edward Coke was an English barrister, judge, and politician who is considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras.Born into an upper-class family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to study at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the Bar on 20 April 1578. As a barrister he took part in several notable cases, including Slade's Case, before earning enough political favour to be elected to Parliament, where he served first as Solicitor General and then as Speaker of the House of Commons. Following a promotion to Attorney General he led the prosecution in several notable cases, including those against Robert Devereux, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. As a reward for his services he was first knighted and then made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

As Chief Justice, Coke restricted the use of the ex officio oath and, in the Case of Proclamations and Dr. Bonham's Case, declared the King to be subject to the law, and the laws of Parliament to be void if in violation of "common right and reason". These actions eventually led to his transfer to the Chief Justiceship of the King's Bench, where it was felt he could do less damage. Coke then successively restricted the definition of treason and declared a royal letter illegal, leading to his dismissal from the bench on 14 November 1616. With no chance of regaining his judicial posts, he instead returned to Parliament, where he swiftly became a leading member of the opposition. During his time as a Member of Parliament he wrote and campaigned for the Statute of Monopolies, which substantially restricted the ability of the monarch to grant patents, and authored and was instrumental in the passage of the Petition of Right, a document considered one of the three crucial constitutional documents of England, along with Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689.

Coke is best known in modern times for his Institutes, described by John Rutledge as "almost the foundations of our law", and his Reports, which have been called "perhaps the single most influential series of named reports". Historically, he was a highly influential judge; within England and Wales, his statements and works were used to justify the right to silence, while the Statute of Monopolies is considered to be one of the first actions in the conflict between Parliament and monarch that led to the English Civil War. In America, Coke's decision in Dr. Bonham's Case was used to justify the voiding of both the Stamp Act 1765 and writs of assistance, which led to the American War of Independence; after the establishment of the United States his decisions and writings profoundly influenced the Third and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution while necessitating the Sixteenth. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. February 1552 – 3. September 1634
Edward Coke photo
Edward Coke: 18 quotes0 likes

Famous Edward Coke Quotes

“A word must become a friend or you will not understand it. Perhaps you do well to be cool and detached when you are seeking information, but I remind you of the wife who complained, 'When I ask John if he loves me, he thinks I am asking for information.”

Edward Coke

Case of Swans, 7 Rep. 15, 17 (1592).

“The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.”

Edward Coke

Semayne's Case, 77 Eng. Rep. 194, 195; 5 Co. Rep. 91, 195 (K.B. 1604).

“The King himself should be under no man, but under God and the Law.”

Edward Coke

Prohibitions del Roy, 12 Co. Rep. 63, quoting Henry de Bracton&#x27;s treatise on the laws and customs of England. http://www.uniset.ca/other/cs4/77ER1342.html <br class="br">Institutes of the Laws of England

“Every libel, which is called famosus libellus, is made either against a private man, or against a public person. If it be against a private man, it deserves a severe punishment.”

Edward Coke

77 Eng. Rep. 250 (1605).

“Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason… The law, which is perfection of reason.”

Edward Coke

The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or, A Commentary on Littleton (London, 1628, ed. F. Hargrave and C. Butler, 19th ed., London, 1832), Third Institute. Compare: "Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason", Sir John Powell, Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. Rep. p. 911.
Institutes of the Laws of England

“The Common lawes of the Realme should by no means be delayed for the law is the surest sanctuary, that a man should take, and the strongest fortresse to protect the weakest of all, lex et tutissima cassis.”

Edward Coke

Institutes of the Laws of England, Second Part, vol. 1 (1642), Notes to Ch. XXIX of the Charter [Magna Carta], paragraph 1391 http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&amp;staticfile=show.php&amp;title=912&amp;search=%22tutissima%22&amp;chapter=61105&amp;layout=html#a_1375898 <br class="br">Institutes of the Laws of England

Edward Coke Quotes about laws

“Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six,
Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix.”

Edward Coke

Translation of lines quoted by Coke. Compare: "Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven; Ten to the world allot, and all to heaven" - Sir William Jones.

“Law is the safest helmet.”

Edward Coke

Inscription in rings given by Coke to several of his friends on June 20, 1606, in anticipation of his judicial investiture; reported in Humphry William Woolrych, The Life of the Right Honourable Sir Edward Coke (1826) p. 75. Derived from a latin maxim, Lex est tutissima cassis; sub clypeo legis nemo decipitur: Law is the safest helmet; under the shield of the law no one is deceived.

“Only this incident inseparable every custom must have, viz., that it be consonant to reason; for how long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.”

Edward Coke

The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or, A Commentary on Littleton, part 62a (London, 1628, ed. F. Hargrave and C. Butler, 19th ed., London, 1832).
Institutes of the Laws of England

“Yet we are obliged, to regard a man with so little about him that is ornamental or entertaining, or attractive, as a very considerable personage in the history of his country. Belonging to an age of gigantic intellect and gigantic attainments, he was admired by his contemporaries, and time has in no degree impaired his fame. He is most familiar to us as an author. Smart legal practitioners, who are only desirous of making money by their profession, neglect his works, and sneer at them as pedantic and antiquated; but they continue to be studied by all who wish to know the history and to acquire a scientific and liberal knowledge of our judicial and political institutions. His Opus Magnum is this Commentary upon Littleton, which in itself may be said to contain the whole common law of England as it then existed. Notwithstanding its want of method and its quaintness, the author writes from such a full mind, with such mastery over his subject, and with such unbroken spirit, that every law student who has made, or is ever likely to make, any proficiency, must peruse him with delight.”

Edward Coke

Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices, Vol. 1, 338.
About, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)

Edward Coke Quotes

“He is not cheated who knows he is being cheated.”

Edward Coke

The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or, A Commentary on Littleton, (London, 1628, ed. F. Hargrave and C. Butler, 19th ed., London, 1832), First Institute.
Institutes of the Laws of England

“A witch is a person who hath conference with the Devil to consult with him or to do some act.”

Edward Coke

Reported in Margaret Alice Murray, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology (2007) p. 18.
Attributed

“Fraud and deceit abound in these days more than in former times.”

Edward Coke

Twyne's Case (1602).

“They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.”

Edward Coke

Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. 32.; 77 Eng Rep 960, 973 (K.B. 1612).

“Thought the bribe be small, yet the fault is great.”

Edward Coke

Institutes of the Laws of England, vol. 3.
Institutes of the Laws of England

“Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no sovereign.”

Edward Coke

Speech https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/coke-selected-writings-of-sir-edward-coke-vol-iii#lf0462-03_head_079 to the committee of the House of Commons (20 May 1628)

“That great lawyer was much heated in the controversy between the Courts at Westminster and the Ecclesiastical Courts. In every part of his conduct his passions influenced his judgment. Vir acer et vehemens.”

Edward Coke

His law was continually warped by the different situations in which he found himself.
Heath, J., Jefferson v. Bishop of Durham (1797), 2 Bos. & Pull. 131.
About, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)

“The gladsome light of jurisprudence.”

Edward Coke

The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, or, A Commentary on Littleton, (London, 1628, ed. F. Hargrave and C. Butler, 19th ed., London, 1832), First Institute.
Institutes of the Laws of England

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