On Edward Coke 's Constitutional Thought and the Value of the Traditional Chinese Legal Thoughts

Coke was undoubtedly a milestone in the history of the legal thoughts in Britain and even in the whole western world.Coke stressed the restriction of royalty and the suprem e status of the common law.In the British Parliament’s struggle against the monarchy in the 17th century,he put forward the creative constitutional ideas about independence of judges and judicial review,advocating the protection of due process and the civil rights,which provided valuable ideological inspiration especially for the development of judicial review and the due process in the U.S.C onstitution.Just as the saying goes,"the old farmland would grow out new grain",looking back on traditional legal thoughts is im portant to the construction of a legal country for the present China.