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The Common Law And The Constitution: John Locke And The Missing Link In Law, Steve Sheppard
The Common Law And The Constitution: John Locke And The Missing Link In Law, Steve Sheppard
Steve Sheppard
Locke's concept of rights influenced the Framers of the Constitution, which has increased the stakes in later interpretation of what Locke’s model of rights entailed. “Lockean rights” now suggests a perfect right unlimitable by the state in the public interest. Such a right is theoretically interesting, but it is not what Locke had in mind, and it was not the model of rights Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other inherited from Locke's Second Treatise.
This paper was an initial reconstruction of Locke's model of a right, locating it within the legal culture of his time and place. His model of what …