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Entick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell's State Trials 1030 is a leading case in English law establishing the civil liberties of individuals and limiting the scope of executive power.

Contents 1 Facts 2 Judgment 3 Consequences 4 External links

On November 11, 1762, Nathan Carrington, James Watson, Thomas Ardran, and Robert Blackmore broke into the home of John Entick in the parish of St. Dunstan, Stepney, with force and arms and seized his private papers. They were acting on the orders of newly appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, to search Entick's home and secure evidence of sedition.

The government was particularly exercised by issue No. 45 of the North Briton. The paper's editor and principal contributor was John Wilkes who used it as an organ to ridicule the administration of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. More than 40 people were arrested over its publication.

Entick sought judgment against Carrington and his colleagues who argued that they acted upon Halifax's warrant.

The trial took place in Westminster Hall presided over by Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. Camden held that Halifax had no right under statute or under precedent to issue such a warrant. In the most famous passage he stated:

The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole. The cases where this right of property is set aside by private law, are various. Distresses, executions, forfeitures, taxes etc are all of this description; wherein every man by common consent gives up that right, for the sake of justice and the general good. By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my license, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing; which is proved by every declaration in trespass, where the defendant is called upon to answer for bruising the grass and even treading upon the soil. If he admits the fact, he is bound to show by way of justification, that some positive law has empowered or excused him. The justification is submitted to the judges, who are to look into the books; and if such a justification can be maintained by the text of the statute law, or by the principles of common law. If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment.

So the individual may do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is expressly authorised by law.

The judgment established the limits of executive power in English law, that an officer of the state could only act lawfully in a manner prescribed by statute or common law.

• Howell's law report