Law

"In case of private jurisdictions, the Court has inclined not to intermeddle."

"We ought not to overstep our jurisdiction because we think it might be advantageous so to do."

"I am extremely unwilling that we should take upon ourselves to exercise a jurisdiction which the law does not vest in us."

"Consent does not give jurisdiction."

"If the Court does not possess an inherent jurisdiction over the subjectmatter, it is not possible that the consent of an individual could confer any such jurisdiction."

"A total want of jurisdiction cannot be cured by the assent of the parties."

"It is part of my duty to expound the jurisdiction of the Court. It is no part of my duty to expand it."

"The Court is not hungry after jurisdiction."

"Although our powers are great, they are not unlimited—they are bounded by some lines of demarcation."

"The Court ought never to come to the conclusion that two cases in the same Court, or in Courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction, are in conflict, unless it is obliged to. I agree that if two cases are in conflict the Court must say with which of them it agrees."

"The rule for jurisdiction is, that nothing shall be intended to be out of the jurisdiction of the superior Court, but that which specially appears to be so; and on the contrary, nothing shall be intended to be within the jurisdiction of an inferior Court but that which is so expressly alleged."

"I agree we ought not to incroach or inlarge our jurisdiction; by so doing we usurp both on the right of the Queen and the people."

"I pass over many anonymous letters I have received. Those in print are public: and some of them have been brought judicially before the Court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That mendax infamia from the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I trust, that my temper of mind, and the colour and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of armour against these arrows."

"The Court is not bound to a strictness at once harsh and pedantic in the application of statutes. The law permits the qualification implied in the ancient maxim, de minimis non curat lex. Where there are irregularities of very slight consequence, it does not intend that the infliction of penalties should be inflexibly severe. If the deviation were a mere trifle, which, if continued in practice, would weigh little or nothing on the public interest, it might properly be overlooked."

"A very ingenious attempt to drive a coach-and-four through this Act of Parliament."

"We ought to apply to this case what is called the golden rule of construction, namely, to give an Act of Parliament the plain, fair, literal meaning of its words, where we do not see from its scope that such meaning would be inconsistent, or would lead to manifest injustice."

"It is the duty of Judges, not to supply the defects of the legislature by providing a remedy, but simply to construe the provisions of the statute it has enacted."

"Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, C.J., Sheffield v. Ratcliffe (1614), Ld. Hob. Rep. 341."

"Bind not the new statutes so to the common law, that their words increased for the King's advantage, should be deprived of their force."

"The statute law is the will of the legislature in writing; the common law is nothing else but statutes worn out by time; all our law began by consent of the legislature, and whether it is now law by usage or writing, it is the same thing."

"The statute is like a tyrant; where he comes he makes all void; but the common law is like a nursing father, makes only void that part where the fault is, and preserves the rest."

"A Court cannot give itself jurisdiction by misconstruing a document or statute."

"A statute cannot alter by reason of time, but the common law may."

"There is a great difference between the Purview of an Act of Parliament, and a Proviso in an Act of Parliament."

"People cannot escape from the obligation of a statute by putting a private interpretation upon its language."

"However we might wish to provide for every hardship that may occur, we are bound to put that construction on the Act that the legislature intended."

"Our limited function is not to say what the legislature meant, but to ascertain what the legislature has said that it meant."

"In the absence of all authority, I can only look to the language of the statute."

"If it were a doubtful point how the statute should be construed, I must consider myself as bound by the construction it has already received in two Courts in Westminster Hall."

"These laws must be construed according to the intention of them: and the circumstances of things at the time of enacting them ought to be taken into consideration."

"We must decide according to the intention of the legislature, which is to be collected from the general object of the Act and from the particular words used in it."

"With regard to the construction of statutes according to the intention of the legislature, we must remember that there is an essential difference between the expounding of modern and ancient Acts of Parliament. In early times the legislature used (and I believe it was a wise course to take) to pass laws in general and in few terms; they were left to the Courts of law to be construed so as to reach all the cases within the mischief to be remedied. But in modern times great care has been taken to mention the particular cases in the contemplation of the legislature, and therefore the Courts are not permitted to take the same liberty in construing them as they did in expounding the ancient statutes."

"We must give effect to the plain language of the legislature, according to the fair interpretation of the words of the Act."

"I do exceedingly commend the Judges that are curious and almost subtil, Astuti (which is the word used in the Proverbs of Solomon in a good sense, when it is to a good end) to invent reasons and means to make Acts, according to the just intent of the parties, and to avoid wrong and injury which by rigid rules might be wrought out of the Act."

"No stops are ever inserted in Acts of Parliament, or in deeds; but the Courts of law, in construing them, must read them with such stops as will give effect to the whole."

"The sense and meaning of an Act must be collected from what it says when passed into a law, and not from the history of changes it underwent in the House where it took its rise. That history is not known to the other House, or to the Sovereign."

"We ought not to decide hastily against the words of an Act of Parliament."

"It is safest to keep to the Statute."

"All Acts of Parliament are to be expounded according to the true meaning to be collected from the words of 'em."

"There are two ways of construing an Act of Parliament—one to extend it to every case reasonably within its operation, and the other to lay hold of every expression to limit and curtail the intention of the legislature."

"The language of statutes is peculiar, and not always that which a rigid grammarian would use; we must do what we can to construe them."

"Un Act de Parlement poet fair aucun chose, comme de fair une feme Mayor ou Justice de Paix, car ceux sont les creatures des homes, mes ne poet alter le course del nature: An Act of Parliament can do anything, as it may make a woman Mayor or Justice of the Peace, but it cannot alter the course of nature."

"Inconvenience arising from the operation of an Act of Parliament can be no ground of argument in a Court of law."

"There is nothing so common in the framing of instruments as that whilst the framer of them is studious to avoid one inconvenience, he incurs another which does not present itself to his view. This is often to be seen in Acts of Parliament."

"Notwithstanding all the care and anxiety of the persons who frame Acts of Parliament to guard against every event, it frequently turns out that certain cases were not foreseen."

"Acts of Parliament are the works of the legislature, and the publication of them has always belonged to the King, as the Executive Part, and as the Head and Sovereign."

"Gentlemen, I speak for myself as well as for you: I never read anything about what may come before me in a Court of Justice; I keep my mind free from everything of the kind. There is often a necessity for me to look into the law: but I never suffer my mind to be biassed by reports, or such papers or pamphlets as are written with a view to pervert justice."

"By our rules we cannot receive a letter from a friend."

"It is sometimes said—erroneously, as I think—that the Judge should be counsel for the prisoner; but at least he must take care that the prisoner is not convicted on any but legal evidence."

"I have been reminded that I sit here as counsel for the defendant. I certainly do so, so far as to interpose between him and the counsel for the prosecution, and to see that no improper use of the law is made against him, and that no improper evidence is given to the jury: but the Judge has another task to perform, which is that of assisting the jury in the administration of justice."