Today is the 460th anniversary of Sir Edward Coke's birth. Coke is widely known in part for his role in the prosecution of the Gunpowder Plot. But Coke was also an astute student of the law. Here's a memorable passage from Coke's report of Bonham's Case, which involved the question whether a London physician could be prevented from practicing medicine and imprisoned pursuant to the newly formed charter of the Royal College of Physicians -- and later ratified by an act of Parliament -- which altered the common law practice. The "censors" of the College had acted as both party and judge in the case, contravening the ancient rule. As those more learned than I have observed, Bonham's Case has almost nothing to do with the contemporary power of judicial review and everything to do with the power of the common law to control the unfettered will of decision-makers -- to restrain the rule of men by the common law, not to unleash it:
The censors cannot be judges, ministers, and parties . . . . And it appears in our books, that in many cases, the common law will controul Acts of Parliament, and sometimes adjudge them to be utterly void: for when an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will controul it, and adjudge such Act to be void.
