If the laws of the king were imperative upon a jury in civil suits, the king might enact laws giving one man's property to another, or confiscating it to the king himself, and authorizing civil suits to obtain possession of it.
Lysander Spooner: “If the laws of the king were imperative upon a jury in civil suits, the king might enact laws giving one man's property…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner illustrates the potential dangers of juries being bound by unjust laws, which could lead to property theft.
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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.
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…
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.