June 29, 2012
Too Much Lawyer
Category: Miscellaneous ::
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The whole point is … not that our Judges have a personal power, but that the whole world around them, the newspapers, the tone of opinion, encourage them to use it in a very personal way. In our legal method there is too much lawyer and too little law. For we must never forget one fact, which we tend to forget nevertheless: that a fixed rule is the only protection of ordinary humanity against clever men — who are the natural enemies of humanity. A dogma is the only safeguard of democracy. The law is our only barrier against lawyers. — G. K. Chesterton, Collected Works 27: The Illustrated London News 1905-1907, p. 290.
Posted by John Barach @ 2:06 pm |
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June 29th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
“Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.”
Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary.