common law

  • Lecture: Jefferson, Natural Rights, and the Sources of the Declaration of Independence

    In this Lyceum Institute Colloquium, John Pinheiro (Acton Institute) examines Thomas Jeffersonโ€™s understanding of natural rights and argues that the Declaration of Independence is best understood within the organic English constitutional tradition of common law, rather than primarily through a Lockean framework. The lecture explores the relationship between natural rights language and inherited English liberties,…

    Read โ†’