Sir John Fortescue
historical figure · 2 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
Fortescue · Chief Justice Fortescue
in the texts
The Genius of the Common Law
Fifteenth-century chief justice credited with dialectical support of dynastic claims and with coining the description of lawful government as 'political'.
that it shall have the essential attribute for which Chief Justice Fortescue’s word was ‘political’ as far back as the fifteenth century.
The factions of York and Lancaster both acted under colour of legal claims to the crown, on which Fortescue and others expended much dialectic ingenuity.
Plummer’s introduction to Fortescue on the Governance of England, Oxford, 1885, gives a good summary view of the time.
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
Medieval English jurist whose maxim on laws deriving force from natural law is quoted.
* * * * Those which are natural laws, are from God;
“All laws derive their force from the law of nature;