1 Cababe & Ellis' Q. B. D. Rep. 133.
Reg. v. Ramsey (1883)
“Quite honestly, we get one new civil case every business day of the year. We spend so much of our time reading the law and interpreting the law, that that does not leave much time for consideration of whether the law is prudent or might be written in a better way. I spend all of my time, with the assistance of my law clerks, trying to read the law and interpret it and apply it to the facts presented in any particular case. So I cannot say that I have spent much time at all considering the propriety of the laws that I have had occasion to interpret.”
Judicial and Executive Nominations (November 14, 2006)
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Thomas Hardiman 3
American judge 1965Related quotes
The Queen v. Tutchin (1704), 1 Salk. 51 pl. 14.
Interview on C-SPAN (9 December 2010) http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/297143-1.
“The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so.”
The Law
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books
Context: The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so. You may break the written law at a pinch and on the sly if you can, but the unwritten law — which often comprises the written — must not be broken. Not being written, it is not always easy to know what it is, but this has got to be done.
Source: Testimony: its Posture in the Scientific World (1859), p. 9
Case of Edmonds and others (1821), 1 St. Tr. (N. S.) 899.
“General laws cannot give way to particular cases.”
King v. The College of Physicians (1797), 7 T. R. 290.
5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137
Marbury v. Madison (1803)