• Object type: Painting
• Formal Title: Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)
• Creator: unknown
• Date Created: circa 1755
• Origin: London
• Current Location: National Portrait Gallery, London

It would be difficult to overestimate the contribution of this quiet, introverted English gentlemen law professor to the common law (his full biography is published at the Law Hall of Fame).

What Blackstone did is nothing less than the ultimate act of giving the public access to justice. His contribution of rendering the entire body of English common law in for plain English language books was very similar to the release of the King James Bible in English which instantly allowed the vast majority of things people who did not speak Latin the ability to understand the primary text behind their religious beliefs.

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