After examining the historical origins of the concepts of Rule of Law, Rechtsstaat and Etat de droit, the report looked at these concepts in positive law. In international law, they appear in a number of treaties but also in soft law; in national law, they appear as a main feature of the state in the constitutions of Germany as well as of a number of former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The notion of the Rule of Law is however often difficult to apprehend in former socialist countries, which were influenced by the notion of socialist legality.
Category: Jurisprudence
The Principles of ‘Justice’- H.M. Hyndman, William Morris, and J. Taylor-1884
Party government indeed means nothing better than party trickery to those who furnish the entire wealth of the country. Tories and Liberals only vie with one another as to which shall most dexterously shelve the pressing social questions of our time. We look for no improvement whatever under the existing Parliamentary system.......
Natural law-Oliver Wendell Holmes
The jurists who believe in natural law seem to me to be in that naïve state of mind that accepts what has been familiar and accepted by them and their neighbors as something that must be accepted by all men everywhere. No doubt it is true that, so far as we can see ahead, some arrangements and the rudiments of familiar institutions seem to be necessary elements in any society that may spring from our own and that would seem to us to be civilized—some form of permanent association between the sexes—some residue of property individually owned—some mode of binding oneself to specified future conduct—at the bottom of all, some protection for the person.
Law in science and science in law-Oliver Wendell Holmes
The growth of education is an increase in the knowledge of measure. To use words familiar to logic and to science, it is a substitution of quantitative for qualitative judgments. The difference between the criticism of a work of art by a man of perception without technical training and that by a critic of the studio will illustrate what I mean. The first, on seeing a statue, will say, "It is grotesque," a judgment of quality merely; the second will say,
Theory of Legal Interpretation-by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The question is how far the law ought to go in aid of the writers. In the case of contracts, to begin with them, it is obvious that they express the wishes not of one person but of two, and those two adversaries. If it turns out that one meant one thing and the other another, speaking generally, the only choice possible for the legislator is either to hold both parties to the judge's interpretation of the words in the sense which I have explained, or to allow the contract to be avoided because there has been no meeting of minds.
Liability-ROSCOE POUND
Two other types of liability, contractual and relational, must receive brief notice. The former has long done valiant service for the will theory. Not only liability arising from legal transactions but liability attached to an office or calling, liability attached to relations and liability to restitution in case of unjust enrichment have been referred to express or implied undertaking and hence to the will of the person held.
Right to ignore the State-Harbart Spencer-1850
A good check upon that sentiment of power-worship which still misleads us by magnifying the prerogatives of constitutional governments as it once did those of monarchs. Let men learn that a legislature is not "our God upon earth," though, by the authority they ascribe to it and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
The path of law by Oliver Wendell Holmes
, What constitutes the law? You will find some text writers telling you that it is something different from what is decided by the courts of Massachusetts or England, that it is a system of reason, that it is a deduction from principles of ethics or admitted axioms or what not, which may or may not coincide with the decisions. But if we take the view of our friend the bad man we shall find that he does not care two straws for the axioms or deductions, but that he does want to know what the Massachusetts or English courts are likely to do in fact. I am much of this mind. The prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious, are what I mean by the law.
The essence of Law-Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, Law is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting: for "lex" [law] is derived from "ligare" [to bind], because it binds one to act. Now the rule and measure of human acts is the reason, which is the first principle of human acts, as is evident from what has been stated above (Q1, A1, ad 3); since it belongs to the reason to direct to the end, which is the first principle in all matters of action, according to the Philosopher (Phys. ii). Now that which is the principle in any genus, is the rule and measure of that genus: for instance, unity in the genus of numbers, and the first movement in the genus of movements. Consequently it follows that law is something pertaining to reason.
Judicial Accomplishments and Philosophy- President G. W. Bush
The lesson should be clear to every American: Judges matter. And that means the selection of good judges should be a priority for all of us. I appreciate that many people listening today and here in this room have worked hard to recruit more Americans to this cause. This work is in all our interests, because the truth of the matter is the belief in judicial restraint is shared by the vast majority of American citizens.
Law and Legal Reasoning – Bibliography
Law and Legal Reasoning Apodaca et al. v. Oregon, (1972) 406 U.S. 408. Baldus, D., Woodworth, G., & Pulaski, C. (1990 ). Burton, S. J. (1995). Law and Legal Reasoning (2nd ed.). Aspen, CO: Aspen Publishers. Cardozo, B. N. (1921).…
Religions of the Utopians-Thomas More’s Utopia 1515
one Supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call, in the language of their country, Mithras. They differ in this: that one thinks the god whom he worships is this Supreme Being, and another thinks that his idol is that god; but they all agree in one principle, that whoever is this Supreme Being, He is also that great essence to whose glory and majesty all honours are ascribed by the consent of all nations.
Advocatetanmoy Law Library 