Commentaries On American Law (1826-1830), by James Kent, Chancellor of New York and Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court. Based on the 1st edition. Footnotes have been converted to chapter end notes. Spelling has been modernized. This electronic edition © Copyright 2006 Lonang Institute.

Table of Contents - Vol. 1 Table of Contents - Vol. 2 Table of Contents - Vol. 3 Table of Contents - Vol. 4

Sample Chapter - Vol. 1 (pdf) Sample Chapter - Vol. 2 (pdf) Sample Chapter - Vol. 3 (pdf) Sample Chapter - Vol. 4 (pdf)

Kent's Commentaries was the first general legal treatise which was based exclusively on the common law of the United States, although at that time much of American common law derived directly from English cases. Kent followed the same general framework laid out in the first three volumes of Blackstone's Commentaries, omitting all discussion of royalty and the crown, while adding considerations from the U.S and various state constitutions. For some reason, Kent never got around to commenting on crimes and criminal laws, but he makes up for it in extended discussions concerning commercial law, maritime law, and general equity.

Each volume is sold separately. In portable document (.pdf) file format, printable, electronically searchable by word or phrase, with chapter bookmarks. This is a fully digital edition of this work - it is not a facsimile reproduction. Do you want a book that just looks pretty, or do you want it in a form you can really use?

"There has been a difference of opinion among writers, concerning the foundations of the law of nations. It has been considered by some as a mere system of positive institutions, founded upon consent and usage; while others have insisted that it was essentially the same as the law of nature, applied to the conduct of nations, in the character of moral persons, susceptible of obligation and laws. We are not to adopt either of these theories as exclusively true. The most useful and practical part of the law of nations is, no doubt, instituted or positive law, founded on usage, consent, and agreement. But it would be improper to separate this law entirely from natural jurisprudence, and not to consider it as deriving much of its force, and dignity, and sanction, from the same principles of right reason, and the same view of the nature and constitution of man, from which the science of morality is deduced."    James Kent, from Commentaries On American Law, Vol. 1, Lecture 1.