The Ancient Constitution: And the Origins of Anglo-American Liberty

by John Phillip Reid

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, English and American lawyers appealed to the ancient constitution as the cornerstone of liberty. According to this idea, constitutional law was not dictated by a monarch but based on the authority of custom, passed down unaltered from time immemorial. Legal historian John Phillip Reid convincingly demonstrates that this concept of an unchanging, ancient constitution furnished English common lawyers and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875803423
• ISBN13: 9780875803425
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.7" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher