萨默塞特案件与英属大西洋世界司法废奴的发展

Somerset Case and the Development of Judicial Abolition in British Atlantic World

司法废奴是英属大西洋世界废奴运动的一个重要内容。1772年的萨默塞特案件和曼斯菲尔德判决确立了财产权不能凌驾于自由之上的司法原则,在英属大西洋世界的司法废奴发展过程中具有里程碑性质的意义。有一个被人们普遍接受的中央权威是司法废奴有效实施的首要条件,正是由于缺少这一中央权威导致美国在南北战争之后才能进行全国性的司法废奴。

Judicial Abolition was an important content of the Abolition Movement in British Atlantic World.Somerset Case and Mansfield judgment established the judicial principal that property right is not above the freedom,so it had the milestone influence in the development of Judicial Abolition in British Atlantic World.The existence of central authority accepted generally was the prerequisite of Judicial Abolition’s effective implementation.It was the absence of such a central authority that resulted the United States did not have a national Judicial Abolition until the end of the American Civil War.