MY HERO. I count Scalia as the equivalent of Hayek, Jefferson, Blackstone, and A

MY HERO.
I count Scalia as the equivalent of Hayek, Jefferson, Blackstone, and Aristotle in forming my understanding of the ‘holes’ in the law – holes that are simply unstated principles. Principles I have sought to enumerate in order to fix those holes in the law.

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However the key players in history are less visible but each is important in his own way:

English common law → constitutional constraint (England)

Henry de Bracton — early systemization of common law into a coherent rule-structure (“what the law is” as something knowable rather than priestly).

Sir John Fortescue — articulates the distinction between dominium regale and dominium politicum et regale (a monarchy constrained by law), i.e., the move from will → rule.

Sir Edward Coke — operationalizes limits on Crown discretion; anchors “common law” as a constraint-producing machine rather than a mere custom list.

Sir Matthew Hale — explains the evolutionary character of common law (why it can adapt without dissolving into discretion).

Lord Mansfield — commercial law integration (a necessary bridge from agrarian custom → scalable trade, credit, and contract adjudication).

A.V. Dicey — later but clarifies “rule of law” and constitutional conventions (useful as a diagnostic of where discretion re-enters by euphemism).

Natural rights / constitutional design inputs (transmission into the USA)

John Locke — supplies the operative grammar for rights, consent, and limits on power that the Founders convert into written constraint.

Montesquieu — separation of powers as an anti-discretion mechanism (institutional design, not moral aspiration).

Algernon Sidney — a concrete republican transmission line into Anglo-American resistance theory.

American “write-down” and early operationalization (USA)

James Madison — institutional architecture: faction, incentives, and constraint design (the mechanism arguments).

Alexander Hamilton — executive energy + fiscal/administrative statecraft (how law survives contact with governance).

John Marshall — judicial review and constitutional supremacy become enforceable rather than poetic.

Joseph Story — systematizes constitutional/common-law understanding for American adjudication and legal education.

James Wilson — founding-era jurisprudence linking natural law language to American constitutional structure.