Law

"Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas."

"Ad quæstionem juris respondeant judices ad quæstionem facti respondeant juratores."

"We must never assume that which is incapable of proof."

"Hominem improbum non accusari tutius est quam absolvi."

"La charte sera désormais une vérité."

"Perchè, cosi come i buoni costumi, per mantenersi, hanno bisogno delli leggi; cosi le leggi per ossevarsi, hanno bisogno de' buoni costumi."

"Nisi per legale judicium parum suorum."

"Certis * * * legibus omnia parent."

"The law speaks too softly to be heard amidst the din of arms."

"Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's."

"As the case stands."

"Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees."

"Le bruit des armes l'empeschoit d'entendre la voix des lois."

"There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws would not deserve hanging ten times in his life."

"Neque enim lex est æquior ulla, Quam necis artifices arte perire sua."

"Sunt superis sua jura."

"Where law ends, there tyranny begins."

"Nescis tu quam meticulosa res sit ire ad judicem."

"Non est princeps super leges, sed leges supra principem."

"All, look up with reverential awe, At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law."

"Piecemeal they win this acre first then, that, Glean on, and gather up the whole estate."

"Once (says an Author; where, I need not say) Two Trav'lers found an Oyster in their way; Both fierce, both hungry; the dispute grew strong, While Scale in hand Dame Justice pass'd along. Before her each with clamour pleads the Laws. Explain'd the matter, and would win the cause, Dame Justice weighing long the doubtful Right, Takes, open, swallows it, before their sight. The cause of strife removed so rarely well, "There take" (says Justice), "take ye each a shell. We thrive at Westminster on Fools like you: 'Twas a fat oyster—live in peace—Adieu.""

"Let us consider the reasons of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason."

"He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it."

"God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law."

"That very law which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course."

"La loi permet souvent ce que défend l'honneur."

"Si judicas, cognosce; si regnas, jube."

"Qui statuit aliquid, parte inaudita altera, Æquum licet statuerit, haud æquus fuerit."

"Inertis est nescire, quid liceat sibi. Id facere, laus est, quod decet; non, quod licet."

"There is a higher law than the Constitution."

"Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized alone are entangled in."

"When to raise the wind some lawyer tries, Mysterious skins of parchment meet our eyes; On speeds the smiling suit— . . . . . . Till stript—nonsuited—he is doomed to toss In legal shipwreck, and redeemless loss, Lucky, if like Ulysses, he can keep His head above the waters of the deep."

"Men keep their engagements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them."

"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."

"Bonis nocet quisquis pepercerit malis."

"Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur."

"A man must not go to law because the musician keeps false time with his foot."

"Quod vos jus cogit, id voluntate impetret."

"Jus summum sæpe summa est malitia."

"The law is good, if a man use it lawfully."

"The Law: It has honored us, may we honor it."

"The glorious uncertainty of law."

"And he that gives us in these days New Lords may give us new laws."

"And through the heat of conflict keeps the law In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw."

"He it was that first gave to the law the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, colour, and complexion; he embraced the cold statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty."

"Generally when scholars talk about the relationship between history, memory, and law, the latter is thought of solely as a passive object of historical change. Legal history is regarded as the study of the forces that have shaped law. It is the history of the evolution of law with law perpetually lagging behind society and being pushed and pulled from the outside. This view, as rich and productive as it is, ignores what might be called an “internal” perspective, one that would examine law for the way it uses and writes history as well as for the ways in which it also become a site of memory and commemoration."

"While law responds to historical change, it also makes history. Law writes the past, not just its own past, but the past for those over whom law seeks to exercise its dominion. Law constructs a that it wants to present as authoritative, when, as Laura Kalman argues, no historian “considers the past authoritative.” And law uses history to tell us who we are."

"Law looks to the past as it speaks to present needs. In the adjudication of every dispute, law traffics in the slippery terrain of memory, as different versions of past events are presented for authoritative judgment. Moreover, in the production of supposedly definitive statements of what the law is in the form of judicial opinions, law reconstructs its own past, tracing out lines of precedent to their “compelling” conclusion. The relationship of law to history is thus complex and multidirectional."

"While there is contest about the meaning of the past, of the precise relevance of law’s history, to its present, there is little dispute about the place of an historical sensibility in legal decision making."