William Blackstone in the context of "Charterhouse School"

The Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner, who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the chancellor, masters and scholars of the University of Oxford, to establish a professorship of the common law in that university, as well as a number of Vinerian scholarships and readerships.

Until the establishment of the Vinerian Chair, only canon law and Roman (civil) law had been taught at Oxford and Cambridge. Only the Inns of Court provided any instruction in the common law, which was of most practical use to practitioners. Upon Sir William Blackstone's appointment to the Vinerian Professorship, his lectures were the first to be given on English Common Law at any university.

The doctrine of necessity is the basis on which extraordinary actions by administrative authority, which are designed to restore order or uphold fundamental constitutional principles, are considered to be lawful even if such an action contravenes established constitution, laws, norms, or conventions. The maxim on which the doctrine is based originated in the writings of the medieval jurist Henry de Bracton, and similar justifications for this kind of extra-legal action have been advanced by more recent legal authorities, including William Blackstone.

In a controversial 1954 judgment, Pakistani Chief Justice Muhammad Munir validated the extra-constitutional use of emergency powers by Governor General, Ghulam Mohammad. In his judgment, the Chief Justice cited Bracton's maxim, 'that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity', thereby providing the label that would come to be attached to the judgment and the doctrine that it was establishing.

Esquire (/ɪˈskwaɪər/, US also /ˈɛskwaɪər/; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, esquire historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman and below the rank of knight. Some sources state that the title was bestowed on "candidates for knighthood in England". It was also used with respect to other dignitaries, such as justices of the peace, sheriffs, and sergeants.

The 1826 edition of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England reiterated that "the title should be limited to those only who bear an office of trust under the Crown and who are styled esquires by the king in their commissions and appointments; and all, I conceive, who are once honoured by the king with the title of esquire have a right to that distinction for life." By the early 20th century, however, esquire was being used as a general courtesy title for any man in a formal setting, with no precise significance, usually as a suffix to his name, and commonly with initials only. In the United Kingdom today, esquire is still occasionally used as a written style of address in formal or professional correspondence. In certain formal contexts, it remains an indication of a social status that is recognised in the order of precedence. In the legal profession, the title is only available for barristers.

The Doctor and Student: Or Dialogues between a Doctor of Divinity and a Student in the Laws of England is a legal treatise by Christopher St. Germain, first published in the early 16th century. As its name suggests, the work is structured as a set of dialogues between the eponymous doctor, a doctor of divinity; and a student of the English common law. Doctor and Student explores the relationship between the common law and equity and distinguishes a number of sources of legal principles. It was an important text for English law students at least until William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England was published in the mid-18th century.

The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the United States Bill of Rights. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court affirmed that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as dicta, that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those forbidding "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons". In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited to the same extent as the federal government from infringing upon this right. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022) assured the right to carry weapons in public spaces with reasonable exceptions.

The Second Amendment was based partially on the right to keep and bear arms in English common law and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights 1689. Sir William Blackstone described this right as an auxiliary right, supporting the natural rights of self-defense and resistance to oppression, and the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state. While both James Monroe and John Adams supported the Constitution being ratified, its most influential framer was James Madison. In Federalist No. 46, Madison wrote how a federal army could be kept in check by the militia, "a standing army ... would be opposed [by] militia." He argued that State governments "would be able to repel the danger" of a federal army, "It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops." He contrasted the federal government of the United States to the European kingdoms, which he described as "afraid to trust the people with arms", and assured that "the existence of subordinate governments ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition".

In England, death by burning was a legal punishment inflicted on women found guilty of high treason, petty treason, and heresy during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. Over a period of several centuries, female convicts were publicly burnt at the stake, sometimes alive, for a range of activities including coining and mariticide.

While men guilty of heresy were also burned at the stake, those who committed high treason were instead hanged, drawn and quartered. The English jurist William Blackstone supposed that the difference in sentencing, although "full as terrible to the sensation as the other", could be explained by the desire not to publicly expose a woman's body. Public executions were well-attended affairs, and contemporary reports detail the cries of women on the pyre as they were burned alive. It later became commonplace for the executioner to strangle the convict, and for the body to be burned post-mortem.

The Commentaries on the Laws of England (commonly, but informally known as Blackstone's Commentaries) are an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford between 1765 and 1769. The work is divided into four volumes, on the rights of persons, the rights of things, of private wrongs and of public wrongs.

The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system. They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages. The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise. The Commentaries were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need. As such, they were used in the training of American and British lawyers long after the death of Blackstone.

In criminal law, Blackstone's ratio (more recently referred to occasionally as Blackstone's formulation) is the idea that:

This was written by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.