Few features of the Commentaries have suffered such unfortunate neglect as Blackstone's stated aim that his work should furnish guidance to “such as are, or may hereafter become, legislators.” Legislative instruction figured as a major programmatic objective for Blackstone's celebrated law book, and his concerns in this area illuminate some of the most distinctive elements of his novel career in legal science and legal education.

Parliamentary legislation was first mentioned on page ten of volume one of the Commentaries, and the judgment there presented initiated a theme sustained and embellished over four large volumes:

The mischiefs of statute received ample illustration at Blackstone's hands. The Hanoverian Mutiny Act, for example, which failed fully to specify the crimes and punishments it authorized stood accused of compromising the fundamental genius of the legal system. Among “the greatest advantages of our English law,” Blackstone observed, was that “not only the crimes themselves which it punishes, but also the penalties which it inflicts, are ascertained and notorious.”