ABSTRACT
At the opening of these commentariesa municipal law was in general defined to be, ‘a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power in a state commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong’.b From hence therefore it followed, that the primary objects of the law are the establishment of rights, and the prohibition of wrongs. And this occasionedc the distribution of these collections into two general heads; under the former of which we have already considered the rights that were defined and established, and under the latter are now to consider the wrongs that are forbidden, and redressed by the laws of England.
