The answer to this objection is, that, since Magna Carta, judges have had more than six centuries in which to invent and promulgate pretended maxims to suit themselves; and this is one of them.
Spooner critiques the historical evolution of legal maxims as tools for judicial manipulation.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
They acknowledge it to be our unquestioned right and duty to kill them, if we can; that they expect nothing else, than that we will kill them, if we can; and that we are only fools and cowards, if we do not kill them, by any and every…
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
For all these reasons, they are not only modest and sensible, but really frank, honest, and honorable villains, contrasted with these courts of injustice, and the lawmakers by whom these courts are established.