If the authority of his laws had been paramount in the judicial tribunals, it would have been paramount with the people, of course; because they would have had no alternative but submission.
Lysander Spooner
The Public Record
Lysander Spooner was an American abolitionist, entrepreneur, lawyer, essayist, natural rights legal theorist, pamphleteer, political philosopher, and writer often associated with the Boston anarchist tradition.
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The fact, then, that his laws were not authoritative with the people, is proof that they were not authoritative with the tribunals in other words, that they were not, as matter of course, enforced by the tribunals.
But we have additional evidence that, up to the time of Magna Carta, the laws of the king were not binding upon the judicial tribunals; and if they were not binding before that time, they certainly were not afterwards, as has already been…
Not only were the common people unable to read their own language, but, at the time of Magna Carta, the laws were written in Latin, a language that could be read by few persons except the priests, who were also the lawyers of the nation.
All the ancient writs, given in Glanville, for summoning jurors, indicate that the jurors judged of everything, on their consciences only.
The administration of justice was carefully provided for; it was not the caprice of their lord, but the sentence of their peers, that they obeyed.
From the moment when the crown became accustomed to the 'Inquest,' a restraint was imposed upon every branch of the prerogative.
The king could never be informed of his rights, but through the medium of the people.
The people taxed themselves; and the collection of the grants was checked and controlled, and, perhaps, in many instances evaded, by these virtual representatives of the community.
According to the simple idea of our forefathers, guilt or innocence was regarded as a mere matter of fact; and it was thought that no man, who knew the real circumstances of a case, could be at a loss to determine whether the culprit ought…
And we may, with satisfaction, observe, that this experiment has been actually tried, and has succeeded in the populous county of Middlesex, which might serve as an example for others.
If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as the government sees fit to indulge them with.