Law

"As a lawyer I am before and above all things for the supremacy of law."

"A Court has no right to strain the law because it causes hardship."

"Your lordships must look hardships in the face rather than break down the rules of law."

"I would wish to do as much as possible for you; but I cannot strain the law."

"It is a principle of law, that a person intends to do that which is the natural effect of what he does."

"Hard cases, it is said, make bad law."

"All arguments on the hardship of a case, either on one side or the other, must be rejected, when we are pronouncing what the law is; for such arguments are only quicksands in the law, and, if indulged, will soon swallow up every principle of it."

"What I desire to point out is that I wish the law was not so, but that being the law, I must follow it."

"There is no worse torture than the torture of laws."

"Hard cases, it has been frequently observed, are apt to introduce bad law."

"General laws cannot give way to particular cases."

"We must not, by any whimsical conceits supposed to be adapted to the altering fashions of the times, overturn the established law of the land: it descended to us as a sacred charge, and it is our duty to preserve it."

"We must proceed according to evidence, and forms and methods of law; they may think what they will of me, but I will always declare my mind according to my conscience."

"The law of England is a law of liberty."

"Lex Anglite est lex misericordite. The law of England is a law of mercy."

"If the law be thought to be improper or inconvenient, application to correct it must be made elsewhere, and not to those who are bound by the repeated and solemn judgments of their predecessors."

"No person is less disposed than I am to accommodate the law to the particular convenience of the case: but I am always glad when I find the strict law and the justice of the case going hand in hand together."

"I agree that is the law, though I think it is a hard law; but we have nothing to do with the question of hardship."

"Anglite jura in omni catu libertatis dant favorem: The laws of England in every case of liberty are favourable."

"What is ridiculous and absurd never is, to my mind, to be adopted either in law or in equity."

"I think the law is generally reasonable."

"Now when a rule of law which is against principle is alleged to be established, there are two points to be considered; first of all, was any such rule of law ever laid down by any Judge? That is the first point to be decided; and secondly, if it was so laid down, has it passed into a binding rule of law ?—that is, has it been so recognised and dealt with by subsequent Judges as to prevent a Judge of a tribunal of co-ordinate jurisdiction from saying that the decision is contrary to the course of law, and is not binding upon him."

"The picture of law triumphant and justice prostrate, is not, I am aware, without admirers. To me it is a sorry spectacle. The spirit of justice does not reside in formalities, or words, nor is the triumph of its administration to be found in successfully picking a way between the pitfalls of technicality. After all, the law is, or ought to be, but the handmaid of justice, and inflexibility, which is the most becoming robe of the latter, often serves to render the former grotesque. But any real inroad upon the rights and opportunities for defence of a person charged with a breach of the law, whereby the certainty of justice might be imperilled, I conceive to be a matter of the highest moment."

"Whatever disadvantages attach to a system of unwritten law, and of these we are fully sensible, it has at least this advantage, that its elasticity enables those who administer it to adapt it to the varying conditions of society, and to the requirements and habits of the age in which we live, so as to avoid the inconsistencies and injustice which arise when the law is no longer in harmony with the wants and usages and interests of the generation to which it is immediately applied."

"You say well: the law of God is the law of England; and you have heard no law else, but what is consonant to the law of reason, which is the best law of God; and here is none else urged against you."

"God made man, and gave him a law to live by; and the laws of England are grounded on the laws of God: and in the laws of England every man is concerned."

"Personally, I detest any attempt to bring the law into maxims. Maxims are invariably wrong, that is, they are so general and large that they always include something which is not intended to be included."

"Remind him as always to keep his Legions intact, for they make the law legal."

"There is no other power in England, but a legal power to punish according to law."

"Retrospective laws are, primd facie of questionable policy, and contrary to the general principle that legislation by which the conduct of mankind is to be regulated ought, when introduced for the first time, to deal with future acts, and ought not to change the character of past transactions carried on upon the faith of the then existing law. Leges et constitutiones futuris certum est dare formam negotiis non ad facta proBterita revocari; nisi nominatim et de praiterito tempore et adhuc pendentibus negotiis cautum sit."

"Whatever place becomes the habitation of civilized men, there the laws of decency must be inforced."

"There is no law whatsoever but may be dispensed with by the Supreme Law-giver; as the laws of God may be dispensed with by God himself; as it appears by God's command to Abraham, to offer up his son Isaac: so likewise the law of man may be dispensed with by the legislator, for a law may either be too wide or too narrow, and there may be many cases which may be out of the conveniences which did induce the law to be made; for it is impossible for the wisest lawmaker to foresee all the cases that may be, or are to be remedied, and therefore there must be a power somewhere, able to dispense with these laws."

"Nova constitutio futuris formam impomere debet non praeteritis: A new state of the law ought to affect the future, not the past."

"Lex prospicit non respicit: The law looks forward, not backward."

"Omnis nova eonstitutio futuris temporibus formam imponere debet, non prateritis: Every new enactment should affect future, not past times."

"Leges posteriores priores, contrarias abrogant"

"If the law be so, there must be some just and honest reason for it, or else some universal settled rule of law upon which it is grounded."

"If it is law, it will be found in our books. If it is not to be found there, it is not law."

"You were speaking of the laws being in other tongues; those that we try you by are in English; and we proceed in English against you; and therefore you have no cause to complain."

"The laws of England will protect the rights of British subjects, and give a remedy for a grievance committed by one British subject upon another, in whatever country that may be done."

"A residence in a new country often introduces a change of legal condition, which imposes rights and obligations totally inconsistent with the former rights and obligations of the same persons."

"The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature of man infused into his heart, for his preservation and direction; and this is lex ceterna, the moral law, called also the law of nature. And by this law, written with the finger of God in the heart of man, were the people of God a long time governed, before the law was written by Moses, who was the first reporter or writer of law in the world."

"De non apparentibus, et noti existentibia, eadem est ratio: Things which do not appear are to be treated as the same as those which do not exist."

"Shew me any law for that if you can, Mr. Williams, I know you are a lawyer."

"Every moral man is as much bound to obey the civil law of the land as the law of nature."

"If a man endeavours to obtain a repeal of those laws, which are conceived to be obnoxious, or the introduction of any laws which he believes to be salutary, if he does that legally, there is no objection to it."

"It would be of ill-consequence, to authenticate a body of laws, that have lain dormant for two hundred years."

"Legality and oppression are not unknown to run hand in hand."

"The law has prescribed a particular method, and we cannot alter the law, nor prevent the inconveniences."

"Necessity is the law of the time and action, and things are lawful by necessity, which otherwise are not; "Quicguid necessitas cogit, defendit"; and the law of the time must regulate the law of the place in such public things."