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L. L.
Blake.
The
Royal Law: Source of our Freedom Today.
London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 2000.
ISBN 0856831913.
Hardback, stitch
bound.
150x216x14mm.
viii,119pp.
English.
Unused
bargain.
This item
£7.00
Publisher's
price £12.95
How to order this book
The
title of the
book is taken from words addressed to the Sovereign during the
coronation
service which, the author points out, plays a much more important part
in the life of our nation than is generally recognised. It is not just
an empty ceremony but the occasion when Divine Law is acknowledged as
the
source of all our law. The service reminds, not only the monarch but
all
those assembled in Westminster Abbey (with television, the audience is
worldwide) of a basic tenet of the British constitution, expressed by
the
13th century lawyer Bracton as: 'The King [or Queen] must be under no
man
but under God and the law, for the law makes the King'. The barons in
forcing
King John to sign Magna Carta were insisting that he abide by the law
and
his coronation oath.
This
principle
has frequently been compared, down the ages, with the Justinian
precept,
'What pleases the prince has the force of law', which lies behind
continental,
Roman law. The civil freedom we enjoy in Britain today stems from
Bracton's
statement, which regulates all our public servants, from prime minister
to police officer, and which has enabled us to give freedom under law
to
large parts of the world - whereas in Brussels, what pleases the
Commissioners
has the force of law.
Writing
after
the Second World War, where Britain had been fighting to preserve the
rule
of law, Professor R. W. Chambers emphasised the importance of this
principle
enshrined in our coronation service: 'Upon that difference - whether or
no we place Divine Law in the last resort above the law of the State -
depends the whole future of the world'
The
book also
shows that there is government behind government, with a greater
purpose
and permanence than the changing spectrum of party political strife.
This
government consists of institutions, mostly of medieval origin, the
monarchy,
parliament, common law, jury system, church, universities and armed
forces.
The powers working through these institutions (which meet in the House
of Lords) are made available to the government of the day, and may be
retracted
if and when they are abused - as the prime minister of Australia
discovered
in 1975.
<>Two
appendices
contain extracts from Queen Elizabeth II's coronation service and an
Anglo-Saxon
document entitled Institutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical.
See
the "book
descriptions" page for explanations of the criteria used in this
listing.
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