Cite as: 527 U. S. 706 (1999)
Souter, J., dissenting
from suit. "[T]he law ascribes to the king the attribute of sovereignty, or pre-eminence," said Blackstone, 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *241 (hereinafter Blackstone), and for him, the sources for this notion were Bracton 3 and Acts of Parliament that declared the Crown imperial, id., at *241- *242. It was simply the King against whom "no suit or action can be brought . . . even in civil matters, because no court can have jurisdiction over him." Id., at *242.4 If a
3 Bracton is the earliest source for the common law immunity of the King, and his explanation is essentially practical: "Si autem ab eo petatur, cum breve non currat contra ipsum, locus erit supplicationi, quod factum suum corrigat et emendet." That is, "If [justice] is asked of him, since no writ runs against him there will [only] be opportunity for a petition, that he correct and amend his act." 2 Bracton, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae 33 (G. Woodbine ed., S. Thorne transl. 1968) (London 1569 ed., folio 5b, Bk. I, ch. 8). The fact that no writ ran against the King was "no peculiar privilege; for no feudal lord could be sued in his own court." 3 W. Holdsworth, History of English Law 465 (3d ed. 1927). " 'He can not be compelled to answer in his own court, but this is true of every petty lord of every petty manor; that there happens to be in this world no court above his court is, we may say, an accident.' " Nevada v. Hall, 440 U. S. 410, 415, n. 6 (1979) (quoting 1 F. Pollock & F. Maitland, History of English Law 518 (2d ed. 1899)). It was this same view of the immunity that came down to Blackstone, who cited Finch for the view that the King must be petitioned and not sued. See H. Finch, Law, or a Discourse thereof, in Four Books 255 (1678 ed., reprinted 1992) ("Here in place of action against the King petition must be made unto him in the Chancery, or in Parliament, for no action did ever lie against the K[ing] at the Common Law, but the party is driven to his petition" (footnotes omitted)); 1 Blackstone *242.
4 As I explain, infra, at 767-768, this common law conception of sovereign immunity differed from the natural law version, which understood immunity as derived from the fact that the sovereign was the font of the law, which could not bind him. I do not dispute, indeed I insist, that in England it was the common law version that existed, and so it is beside the point for the Court to protest that the King could not be sued under French law in his own courts, see ante, at 735; naturally not, since the common law conception was not couched in terms of who was the font of the law. This said, I note that it is surprising for the Court to say that "[i]t is doubtful whether the King was regarded . . . as the font of the
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