Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes and the Origins of American Constitutionalism

This work suggests that American constitutionalism is the product of a combination of two opposing schools of thought: the English common-law tradition as exemplified by the work of Edward Coke and early liberal political philosophy as seen in the work of Thomas Hobbes. Stoner addresses the question of what we expect of judges in a political system that rests on popular sovereignty and a legal order committed to the idea of fundamental law.