As part of our ongoing series of episodes devoted to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re delighted to bring you an episode devoted to the legal relevance of the Declaration’s most famous sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
We’ll focus in today’s episode on that last phrase. In his Commentaries on the Laws of England, William Blackstone described the pursuit of happiness as a science of jurisprudence, by which his students could identify and then apply the first principles of Common Law. Separately, the American Founders included the Pursuit of Happiness as one of only three unalienable Rights listed in the Declaration.
Where do Blackstone and the Founders agree and disagree in their understanding of the Pursuit of Happiness? What practical role did they suggest the concept might serve in English and early American law and legal philosophy? Professor Carli Conklin covers these fascinating topics in the above podcast.
