Edward Coke - Legacy

Legacy

Coke's challenge to the ecclesiastical courts and their ex officio oath is seen as the origin of the right to silence; with his decision that common law courts could issue writs of prohibition against such oaths, and his arguments that such oaths were contrary to the common law (as found in his Reports and Institutes), Coke "dealt the crucial blow to the oath ex officio and to the High Commission". The case of John Lilburne later confirmed that not only was such an oath invalid, but that there was a right to silence, drawing from Coke's decisions in reaching that conclusion. In the trial of Sir Roger Casement for treason, Coke's assertion that treason is defined as "giving aide and comfort to the King's enemies within the realme or without" was the deciding factor. His work in Slade's Case led to the rise of modern contract law, and his actions in the Case of Proclamations and the other pleadings which led to his eventual dismissal went some way towards securing judicial independence. The Statute of Monopolies is considered one of the first steps towards the eventual English Civil War, and also "one of the landmarks in the transition of economy from the feudal to the capitalist".

Outside of England and Wales, Coke was particularly influential in the United States, both before and after the American War of Independence. During the legal and public campaigns against the writs of assistance and Stamp Act 1765, Bonham's Case was given as a justification for nullifying the legislation, and in the income tax case of 1895, Joseph Hodges Choate used Coke's argument that a tax upon the income of property is a tax on the property itself to have the Supreme Court of the United States declare the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act unconstitutional, leading to the passage of the Sixteenth Amendment. The Castle doctrine originates from Coke's statement in the Third Institutes that "A man's home is his castle – for where shall he be safe if it not be in his house?", which also profoundly influenced the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution; the Third Amendment, on the other hand, takes influence from the Petition of Right.