Editing Edward Coke (section)

===''Institutes''===
{{main|Institutes of the Lawes of England}}

Coke's other main work was the ''Institutes of the Lawes of England'', a four-volume treatise described as his "masterwork". The first volume, the ''Commentary upon Littleton'', known as ''Coke on Littleton'', was published in 1628.<ref>{{Harvnb|Woolrych|1826|p=175}}</ref> It is ostensibly a commentary on [[Thomas Littleton (judge)|Sir Thomas Littleton]]'s ''[[Treatise on Tenures]]'', but actually covered many areas of the law of his time. The other three volumes were all published after his death, and covered 39 constitutional statutes of importance (starting with Magna Carta), the law relating to criminal law, and constitutional and administrative law, respectively.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boyer|2004a|p=xiii}}</ref> While the ''Reports'' were intended to give an explanation of the law chronologically, Coke's purpose was to provide an English language tutorial for students studying law at the [[Inns of Court]]. This served as an alternative to the Roman law lectures at university, which were based on Latin;<ref>{{Harvnb|Hostettler|1997|p=159}}</ref> according to Bowen, it was "a double vision; the ''Institutes'' as authority, the ''Reports'' as illustration by actual practise".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bowen|1957|p=438}}</ref>

Part one, the ''Commentary upon Littleton'', was undoubtedly the most famous; copies were exported to the United States early in the colonial era. The work was first printed in an American edition in 1812, by which point the English version was in its sixteenth edition, and had been commented on itself by various later legal authorities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bowen|1957|p=439}}</ref> As with the ''Reports'', Coke's ''Institutes'' became a standard textbook in the United States, and was recorded in the law libraries of [[Harvard College]] in 1723 and [[Brown University]] in 1770; [[John Jay]], [[John Adams]], [[Theophilus Parsons]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]] were all influenced by it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bowen|1957|p=443}}</ref> [[John Rutledge]] later wrote that "Coke's ''Institutes'' seems to be almost the foundations of our law", while Jefferson stated that "a sounder Whig never wrote more profound learning in the orthodox doctrine of British liberties".<ref>{{Harvnb|Ryan|2005|p=9}}</ref> The ''Third Institutes'' has been described as "the first really adequate discussion of treason, a work which went far towards offering the remedy of a humanized common law to the injustices of trial procedures".<ref name=bod471>{{Harvnb|Bodet|1970|p=471}}</ref>

The work had its detractors, with some writers criticising it for "repulsive pedantry" and "overbearing assertions", as well as incorrect citations to works that were later discredited.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bowen|1957|p=444}}</ref> There are also factual inaccuracies; Kenyon Homfray in the ''Ecclesiastical Law Journal'' notes that, despite being considered the supreme legal authority on the subject of consecration, which Coke covered in the third volume of the ''Institutes'', he offered no legal support for his opinion and ignored those pieces of case law which rejected his interpretation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Homfray|2009|p=6}}</ref>