“If the custom be general, it is the law of the realm: if local only, it is lex loci, the law of the place. Now, all laws are general, as far as the law extends; and all customs of England are of course, immemorial.1 No usage, therefore, can be part of that law, or have the force of a custom, that is not immemorial.”

4 Burr. Part IV., 2368.
Dissenting in Millar v Taylor (1769)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If the custom be general, it is the law of the realm: if local only, it is lex loci, the law of the place. Now, all law…" by Joseph Yates (judge)?
Joseph Yates (judge) photo
Joseph Yates (judge) 18
English barrister and judge 1722–1770

Related quotes

John Holt (Lord Chief Justice) photo

“An universal custom is a law, and I know no distinction between lex mercatoria and consuetudo mercaborum.”

John Holt (Lord Chief Justice) (1642–1710) English lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of England

Cramlington v. Evans (1680), Show. 4.

Mark Twain photo

“Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

The Gorky Incident (1906)

“The distribution of wealth, therefore, depends on the laws and customs of society.”

Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter V, The Utopian Socialists, p. 123

Michel De Montaigne photo

“The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Attributed

Seneca the Younger photo

“The customs of that most criminal nation have gained such strength that they have now been received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors.”

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

De Superstitione (On Superstition)
Source: Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe https://books.google.com.br/books?id=wefkDwAAQBAJ&pg=108 by Robert Orlando; p. 108

Diogenes Laërtius photo

“There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that which arises from customs is the unwritten law.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Plato, 51.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 3: Plato

Peter Kropotkin photo

“Its character is the skillful commingling of customs useful to society, customs which have no need of law to insure respect, with other customs useful only to rulers, injurious to the mass of the people, and maintained only by the fear of punishment.”

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…

Source: Law and Authority (1886), II
Context: Legislators confounded in one code the two currents of custom of which we have just been speaking, the maxims which represent principles of morality and social union wrought out as a result of life in common, and the mandates which are meant to ensure external existence to inequality.
Customs, absolutely essential to the very being of society, are, in the code, cleverly intermingled with usages imposed by the ruling caste, and both claim equal respect from the crowd. "Do not kill," says the code, and hastens to add, "And pay tithes to the priest." "Do not steal," says the code, and immediately after, "He who refuses to pay taxes, shall have his hand struck off."
Such was law; and it has maintained its two-fold character to this day. Its origin is the desire of the ruling class to give permanence to customs imposed by themselves for their own advantage. Its character is the skillful commingling of customs useful to society, customs which have no need of law to insure respect, with other customs useful only to rulers, injurious to the mass of the people, and maintained only by the fear of punishment.

George Herbert photo

“966. With customes wee live well, but lawes undoe us.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

Émile Durkheim photo

“Methodological rules are for science what rules of law and custom are for conduct.”

Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) French sociologist (1858-1917)

Source: The Division of Labor in Society (1893), p. 364

Related topics