Lord Coke, the draftsman of the Petition of Right, said in the seminal 1610 decision commonly known as Dr. Bonham’s Case:

“In many cases, the common law will control Acts of Parliament [...]: for when an Act of Parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant, or impossible to be performed, the common law will control it and adjudge such an Act to be void.” The Petition of Right set out some specific liberties of the subject that the king was prohibited from infringing, complaining that:

“...great companies of soldiers and mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn against the laws and customs of this realm.”