In the civil suit, the law is declared to be obligatory upon A; in the criminal suit, the same law is declared to be of no obligation.
Lysander Spooner: “In the civil suit, the law is declared to be obligatory upon A; in the criminal suit, the same law is declared to be of…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner critiques the contradictory nature of legal obligations in civil versus criminal cases.
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On the contrary, they acknowledge themselves robbers, murderers, and villains, pure and simple.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.
When they have once taken our money, they have the decency to get out of our sight as soon as possible; they do not persist in following us, and robbing us, again and again, so long as we produce anything that they can take from us.
They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.