Thursday, July 28, 2022
Something That Could Be Guarded Against
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Complacent
Friday, June 24, 2022
Let Justice Be Done
Following a couple of mentions that I made last month of the old legal maxims (and their value), I now present one of my favorites, as it was used by Mansfield in Somerset's Case:
"If the parties will have judgment, Fiat justitia, ruat coelum; let justice be done whatever be the consequence."
Monday, June 20, 2022
Too Little Noise
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
So Much Noise!
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
“Remiss or Supine”
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
More Activity
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Activity
- Adam Ferguson, from An Essay on the History of Civil Society
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
And Another
Many of the old legal maxims -- especially the ones that had a history of significance and actual use before the publication of certain late 19th and early 20th century collections of "maxims", which would call almost anything a "maxim" -- are worth remembering. Here is another:
Quod Ab Initio non valet in Tractu Temporis non Convalescit.
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Atrophy And Entropy
- Adam Ferguson, from An Essay on the History of Civil Society
Monday, April 25, 2022
The Security And The Spirit Of Justice
- Adam Ferguson, from An Essay on the History of Civil Society
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Vulnerability In Numbers -- Or The Danger Of It
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Not In Mere Laws
“Rome and England, under their mixed governments, the one inclining to democracy, and the other to monarchy, have proved the great legislators among nations. The first has left the foundation, and great part of the superstructure of its civil code to the continent of Europe: the other, in its island, has carried the authority and government of law to a point of perfection, which they never before attained in the history of mankind. Under such favourable establishments, known customs, the practice and decisions of courts, as well as positive statutes, acquire the authority of laws; and every proceeding is conducted by some fixed and determinate rule.
“The best and most effectual precautions are taken for the impartial application of rules to particular cases; and it is remarkable, that, in the two examples we have mentioned, a surprising coincidence is found in the singular methods of their jurisdiction. The people in both reserved in a manner the office of judgment to themselves, and brought the decision of civil rights, or of criminal questions, to the tribunal of peers, who, in judging of their fellow citizens, prescribed a condition of life for themselves. It is not in mere laws, after all, that we are to look for the securities to justice, but in the powers by which these laws have been obtained, and without whose constant support they must fall to disuse. Statutes serve to record the rights of a people, and speak the intention of parties to defend what the letter of the law has expressed; but without the vigour to maintain what is acknowledged as a right, the mere record, or the feeble intention, is of little avail. A populace roused by oppression, or an order of men possessed of temporary advantage, have obtained many charters, concessions, and stipulations, in favour of their claims; but where no adequate preparation was made to preserve them, the written articles were often forgotten, together with the occasion on which they were framed.
“The history of England, and of every free country, abounds with the example of statutes enacted when the people or their representatives assembled, but never executed when the crown or the executive was left to itself. The most equitable laws on paper are consistent with the utmost despotism in administration. Even the form of trial by juries in England had its authority in law, while the proceedings of courts were arbitrary and oppressive. We must admire, as the key stone of civil liberty, the statute which forces the secrets of every prison to be revealed, the cause of every commitment to be declared, and the person of the accused to be produced, that he may claim his enlargement, or his trial, within a limited time. No wiser form was ever opposed to the abuses of power. But it requires a fabric no less than the whole political constitution of Great Britain, a spirit no less than the refractory and turbulent zeal of this fortunate people, to secure its effects. If even the safety of the person, and the tenure of property, which may be so well defined in the words of a statute, depend, for their preservation, on the vigour and jealousy of a free people, and on the degree of consideration which every order of the state maintains for itself; it is still more evident, that what we have called the political freedom, or the right of the individual to act in his station for himself and the public, cannot be made to rest on any other foundation. The estate may be saved, and the person released, by the forms of a civil procedure; but the rights of the mind cannot be sustained by any other force but its own.”
- Adam Ferguson, from An Essay on the History of Civil Society
Thursday, February 3, 2022
Thirty Is Not Thirty-One
Commentary on this point ought to be unnecessary, so before I bother to try to explain this further, I'll just leave this here and see how it goes.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
After Thirty Days Had Passed
- April 30, 2021.
- May 31, 2021.
- August 30, 2021.
- September 30, 2021.
- October 31, 2021.
- December 1, 2021.
- January 1, 2022.
This is a list of the dates (so far) when the thirty days of the then-latest renewal term of Indiana's State of Disaster Emergency had been exhausted but the pending renewal had yet to take effect. I have no idea what would lead the Governor's office to schedule these renewals so as to allow the COVID-19 State of Disaster Emergency repeatedly expire. When I first noticed that dates were being skipped, I felt certain that it was being done inadvertently. However, it has now happened seven times (so far) since April 2021, including the last four in a row. The longer this continues, the more difficult it becomes to believe that it is an accident, but it would make no sense to do this on purpose. By the terms of IC 10-14-3-12(a)(2), a State of Disaster Emergency expires and terminates after thirty days unless a renewal keeps it going for another thirty days. The renewal must, of course, begin the new thirty day period where the one preceding it ends; if the State of Disaster Emergency is permitted to expire, then there will no longer be anything left to renew. Unless Governor Holcomb wants the State of Disaster Emergency to end (which he can bring about at will whenever he might choose to do so), it is unwise to repeatedly schedule renewals to take effect a full day after the latest thirty-day term has been exhausted. If Indiana law were being followed, here, the State of Disaster Emergency should have ended on April 30th, 2021, or, failing that, on any one of the other six of the seven dates above.
I cannot explain why this is being done; I can only call attention to the fact that it is.
(I can also add: If you know anyone who has been dead on seven separate occasions, each time for a full twenty-four hours, then that person has something in common with Indiana's COVID-19 State of Disaster Emergency.)