Today in 1215 AD the pope Innocent III declared Magna Carta invalid. He was
thankfully ignored. The American colonists rebelled against the Stamp Act,
in 1765. The colonists argued that without either local consent or direct
representation in Parliament, the act was "taxation without representation."
They also objected to the law's provision that those who disobeyed could be
tried in admiralty courts without a jury of their peers. Lord Coke argued in
the 1600's in the favour of the Americans in finding any Act null and void.
that involved taxation without representation. Coke's influence on Americans
showed clearly when the Massachusetts Assembly reacted by declaring the
Stamp Act "against the Magna Carta and the natural rights of Englishmen."
Thomas Jefferson spoke of the works of Lord Coke "a sounder Whig never
wrote, nor one of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the
British constitution, or in what were called British liberties." It was his
settled conviction that the early studies of the colonial lawyers were from
the book "Coke upon Lyttleton" first published in 1628. Coke prepared them
for the part they took in resisting the unconstitutional acts of the British
government.
Jefferson's study of Coke led him to extend his researches into the origins
of British law, and led him also to the rejection of the maxim of Sir
Matthew Hale, that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England.
Jefferson's youthful treatise on this complex and difficult point shows the
minuteness and the extent of his legal studies. While Jefferson was a
student of law, he was an eye-witness of those memorable scenes in the
Virginia legislature which followed the passage of the stamp-act, he was
present as a spectator in the house when Patrick Henry read his five
resolutions, written upon a blank leaf torn from the book "Coke upon
Lyttleton," enunciating the principle that Englishmen living in America had
all the rights of Englishmen living in England, the chief of which was, that
they could only be taxed by their own representatives.
This creates a modern day problem. When you attend your local place of
refreshment or supermarket do not order a 'Coke'. You must order a
Coke-a-Cola. The Coke-a-Cola company has, on many occasions, with its use
of the word Coke in advertising offends Sir Edward Coke, Lord Coke.
Sinclair
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@quarterman.org
[ To get off or on the list, see http://sinclair.quarterman.org/list.html