Did Sir Edward Coke mean what he said?(17th Century English legal scholar on laws 'impossible to be performed')

Constitutional Commentary | March 22, 1999| | Copyright

"When it is said in the books, that a statute contrary to natural equity and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, is void, the cases are understood to mean that the courts are to give the statute a reasonable construction."(1) So James Kent summarized centuries of English constitutional history in his magisterial Commentaries on American Law. On its face, the sentence is remarkable: the English reports contain cases saying that "a statute contrary to natural equity and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, is void," but the judges in those cases ...

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