Case of Prohibitions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Case of Prohibitions (1607) is a historical English court decision that established the supremacy of the courts.

King James VI placed himself in the position of judge for a dispute. When the case went before Edward Coke, the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, he overturned the decision of the King and held that cases must only be tried by those with legal training and must be subject to the rule of law. Coke famously describes the function of judges as being "not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand of the law and not by the crooked cord of discretion."