Sir Edward Coke

Title The life of Sir Edward Coke, lord chief justice of England in the reign of James I., with memoirs of his contemporaries, Volume 1 The Life of Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England in the Reign of James I., with Memoirs of His Contemporaries, Cuthbert William Johnson. Publisher: Orr and Smith, 1837. Original from: the University of Michigan. Digitized: May 6, 2008. Subjects: Great Britain. Sir Edward Coke (pronounced "Cook") (1 February 1552 – 3 September 1634) was a seventeenth-century English jurist and Member of Parliament whose writings on the common law were the definitive legal texts for nearly 150 years.

Coke's importance rests principally on his legal writings and on his defense of the rule of law. His texts formed the basis for modern common law, with lawyers in England and America learning from his Institutes and Reports until the end of the eighteenth century. As a judge and Member of Parliament, Coke supported individual liberty against arbitrary government.

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

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