Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499 (aka "Somersett's case", or in State Trials v.XX "Sommersett v Steuart") is a famous judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, which held that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales, although the position elsewhere in the British Empire was left ambiguous. Lord Mansfield decided that:
Lord Mansfield decided that slavery was supported by common law.