Study the documents for yourself
This library begins with original historical and legal documents—not with present-day conclusions. Each lesson identifies the source, explains difficult language in plain English, places the text in its historical setting, and helps students test what the passage supports and where its limits lie.
The lessons are written so that a high-school student can follow them. They are independent study materials and are not official training of The North Carolina Assembly or the Federation of States.
First study series
Blackstone: Text, History and Meaning
William Blackstone organized the laws of eighteenth-century England into a form that students and the public could study. Our purpose is to understand what he actually wrote, what his words meant in their time, and where their influence can still be seen.
Lesson 1
Why Study Blackstone
Blackstone’s Introduction, Section 1 — On the Study of the Law
Why Blackstone believed ordinary people, jurors, public officers, lawmakers, and property owners should understand the legal system in which they act.
Lesson 2
What Blackstone Meant by Law
Blackstone’s Introduction, Section 2 — Of the Nature of Laws in General
How Blackstone moved from a broad definition of law to the rules governing human conduct, authority, reason, choice, natural law, revealed law, and municipal law.
How the series will grow
New lessons will be added in reading order. Later collections will examine Unam Sanctam (One Holy Church), Romanus Pontifex (The Roman Pontiff), Aeterni Regis (Of the Eternal King), and the 1537 documents using the same source-first method.