169
establishment of British modern constitution and with
it the English way of life and thought. (Ibid)
When Parliament was showing an arbitrary temper
comparable with that of the Stuart Monarchy in the
Seventeenth
Century,
Wilkes
appealed,
and
not
in
vain, to the common law. At the same time, when the
English Government was refusing to British American
colonies the rights for which Parliament had fought
nearly a hundred years before, the Framers of the
United States constitution saw so clearly the true
place of law in the government of the people that
they conferred upon the Supreme Court the power to
declare invalid the acts of President or of Congress.
This is the lesson for the present age. If the
people would live in peace and enjoy their liberties
and, because this is a corollary to all liberties,
observe their obligations, there must be law, and to
declare it, law courts presided over by independent
Judges who will “administer justice indifferently to
all men”. (Historical Introduction to English Law,
Fourth Edition of A.K.R. Kiralfy). With the passage
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