In order to further the legal education component of my manifesto, published yesterday, I intend on doing the following:
1. I will be taking an online text of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, and will gradually build up links from this weblog to that online text.
2. Additionally, I will be making a summary and precis of each chapter, with the end of condensing the information provided in the Commentaries into a form which can be read profitably by modern readers.
3. I will be doing the above in order to use the texts provided as a basis for a new treatise of modern American common law. This will have the working title, if not the ultimate one, of Brandt on Modern American Common Law
I will be doing so for the following reasons:
A. As I wrote in my Manifesto, I believe that there is a clear need for a text which can assist laymen and women in gaining a competent knowledge of American state and federal law.
B. The Commentaries are perhaps the premier treatise used for the teaching of common law, especially in the United States. They were at the basis of legal education for United States presidents from Jefferson to Lincoln, and for a great many others as well.
C. The Commentaries were also much of the foundation for American Common Law, from the time of the United States' founding as a nation onward.
While I will not rule out the possibility that this new treatise will be published in print or online, its immediate purpose is to provide a free means by which laymen and women can teach themselves American law.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
A Manifesto
This country was founded upon the principle that all human beings are created equal in dignity, in freedom, and under the law, and that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain rights, among them, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
As long as this principle is held in the minds and hearts of our people, our country will continue in freedom, in dignity, and under the law. If it is ever lost, then our country will be lost, even if it should continue in name.
To the end that our country may not be lost, and that this driving principle may continue, and continue to bless us, it is right that we should take steps to see that it do so.
To that end, it might be wise to review two maxims:
The first, coined by Sir Francis Bacon, is that Knowledge is Power. There have been so many proofs of this, over so many centuries, and by so many peoples, that this should be considered as a an axiom, or a first principle.
There is, however, a necessary corollary to this principle: that Ignorance is weakness. While this is a very hard saying, and a very unpopular one, we have also seen too many proofs of it to afford to ignore its effect, or to fail to act upon it.
The second maxim, which was and is a commonplace of our legal system, is this: Ignorantia legis excusat neminem. Translated into English, that maxim is: Ignorance of the law excuses no one. This plain saying has two meanings.
Obviously, it first means that if one is ignorant of the law, one is still bound to obey it. A criminal who is hauled up before the bench cannot plead his ignorance of the law he broke as an excuse for having broken it. But also, one cannot seek justice under the law if one does not know what that law is. All this should be clear to any one who gives a few minutes of thought to it.
But there is a another meaning to that legal maxim: There is no excuse for one to be ignorant of the law. If ignorance is weakness, then ignorance of the law is one of the greatest weaknesses which one can suffer. If one does not know what the law is, one can not know when one happens to break it. If one does not know what one's rights are, one can not enforce them. And if one does not know what one's duties are under the law, one can not help but fail to fulfill them.
It is fortunate that ignorance is a curable disease. It can always be cured by applying some knowledge to the injured area.
It is unfortunate, though, that like the second maxim, most law has its source in a language which is not spoken by most people. This was often the way of it in our legal system: the laws of the Church were in Latin; the laws of the mediaeval times were in Norman French, the language of an oppressing minority. And these days, the laws written by jurists and lawyers are largely all in jargon, a specialized language not known by most people.
There is a cure for jargon, too also. It can be translated into plain English. It is an easy matter to learn the language of the law. It is also an easy matter to learn how to find out what the law is, or how it applies to you. And, should a law be unjust or ill-applied, it is a simple matter easy for a people who know the law to change it.
The purpose of this weblog is to help you, the people of the United States, to learn the language of the law, to learn how to find out what the law is, and, if necessary, how to change the law.
People of this nation, read on: you have nothing to lose but your ignorance.
As long as this principle is held in the minds and hearts of our people, our country will continue in freedom, in dignity, and under the law. If it is ever lost, then our country will be lost, even if it should continue in name.
To the end that our country may not be lost, and that this driving principle may continue, and continue to bless us, it is right that we should take steps to see that it do so.
To that end, it might be wise to review two maxims:
The first, coined by Sir Francis Bacon, is that Knowledge is Power. There have been so many proofs of this, over so many centuries, and by so many peoples, that this should be considered as a an axiom, or a first principle.
There is, however, a necessary corollary to this principle: that Ignorance is weakness. While this is a very hard saying, and a very unpopular one, we have also seen too many proofs of it to afford to ignore its effect, or to fail to act upon it.
The second maxim, which was and is a commonplace of our legal system, is this: Ignorantia legis excusat neminem. Translated into English, that maxim is: Ignorance of the law excuses no one. This plain saying has two meanings.
Obviously, it first means that if one is ignorant of the law, one is still bound to obey it. A criminal who is hauled up before the bench cannot plead his ignorance of the law he broke as an excuse for having broken it. But also, one cannot seek justice under the law if one does not know what that law is. All this should be clear to any one who gives a few minutes of thought to it.
But there is a another meaning to that legal maxim: There is no excuse for one to be ignorant of the law. If ignorance is weakness, then ignorance of the law is one of the greatest weaknesses which one can suffer. If one does not know what the law is, one can not know when one happens to break it. If one does not know what one's rights are, one can not enforce them. And if one does not know what one's duties are under the law, one can not help but fail to fulfill them.
It is fortunate that ignorance is a curable disease. It can always be cured by applying some knowledge to the injured area.
It is unfortunate, though, that like the second maxim, most law has its source in a language which is not spoken by most people. This was often the way of it in our legal system: the laws of the Church were in Latin; the laws of the mediaeval times were in Norman French, the language of an oppressing minority. And these days, the laws written by jurists and lawyers are largely all in jargon, a specialized language not known by most people.
There is a cure for jargon, too also. It can be translated into plain English. It is an easy matter to learn the language of the law. It is also an easy matter to learn how to find out what the law is, or how it applies to you. And, should a law be unjust or ill-applied, it is a simple matter easy for a people who know the law to change it.
The purpose of this weblog is to help you, the people of the United States, to learn the language of the law, to learn how to find out what the law is, and, if necessary, how to change the law.
People of this nation, read on: you have nothing to lose but your ignorance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)