The eminently qualified former harvard law school dean who has never donned the judge 's robe will replace liberal jurist john paul stevens , who retired in june after 35 years on the bench .
Sir william blackstone , an 18th-century jurist who wrote a famous four-volume history of english law , described a man 's right to trial by his peers as " the principal bulwark of our liberties " .
Traditional societies of all kinds have been uncomfortable with corporations which , according to edward thurlow , an 18th-century british jurist , have " neither bodies to be punished , nor souls to be condemned " .
