“For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading.”

—  William Ernest Hocking

Preface (20 May 1926), p. vii.
Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Context: For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.

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William Ernest Hocking 31
American philosopher 1873–1966

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