Introduction
Sir Edward Coke (1 February 1552–3 September 1634) was one of the greatest legal thinkers of seventeenth-century England who served under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, Kings James I, and Charles I. He was a barrister and then became member of Parliament, Solicitor General, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Attorney General of Queen Elizabeth I. After that, under the reign of James I, he was made Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and subsequently the King’s Bench, before returning to play an important role in the English Parliament during the rule of James I and Charles I. Although in his early years Coke was even obsequious to the crown, ever since the start of his judicial career, he challenged it and went on to become one of the most prominent champions of the common law and the rights of the English people as a way to limit royal power.
Coke’s defense of the jurisdiction of the common law courts over the ecclesiastic courts in ruling about the tithes; his...
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Dorado Porras, J. (2023). Coke, Edward. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6519-1_754
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