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Read the historical account of possession, use, and habitation together with the limits on government interference. The passages introduce the interests before turning to the remedies protecting them.
Printed page 138 · PDF page 158
Use, enjoyment, and disposal
Blackstone identifies property with the use, enjoyment, and disposal of acquisitions, and distinguishes its asserted natural foundation from the civil rules governing it. Continue to the next page for his treatment of interference with the right.
1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 138 (Oxford, William Strahan, Thomas Cadell, & Daniel Prince 7th ed. 1775).
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Original source record ↗Printed page 139 · PDF page 159
Public benefit and compensation
The example of a public road across private land distinguishes private interference without consent from legislative acquisition accompanied by compensation. It supplies context for the protected interest and the institutional means of altering it.
1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 139 (Oxford, William Strahan, Thomas Cadell, & Daniel Prince 7th ed. 1775).
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Original source record ↗Printed page 223 · PDF page 235
Habitation as a protected interest
Blackstone introduces burglary as a forcible invasion of the right of habitation, then discusses the house as a place of special protection. Read this alongside the property discussion without collapsing burglary, trespass, and the execution of legal process into one rule.
4 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 223 (Oxford, William Strahan, Thomas Cadell, & Daniel Prince 7th ed. 1775).
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