How To Use Magic Legal Incantations Properly

[Pottapaug1938]

And, here is a magnum opus which, among other things, warns the Sovrun apprentice that he/she MUST use the Latin text of a legal maxim, and not the English translation:

http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/boh/boh4.shtml

Gotta get the magic spell right, y'know; otherwise, the de facto court judge will not turn into a frog and hop away, leaving you free to assert your sovrunty to all who will listen.

[grixit]

So "legal maxims" now have binding force? Cool! Since these are not created by any legislative or executive action, it means that anyone can make their own.

Let's see:

Teum nunc meum: Your stuff is now mine.



Qui prime "superanus" diceat, vicet: The first to say "sovereign" wins.

[Chados]

"Superanus." Describes these clowns perfectly.

My favorite "legal maxim" they quote is this one: "Nemo debet esse judex in propria causa. No man ought to be judge in his own cause." They don't even read their own stuff! All these nimrods try to be their own judges!

This site looks to be the work of what I call "quasi-Christian Fascists." They believe that they can supercede the civil government with their own malignant version of theocracy loosely based on fundamentalist Chistianity. The Latin stuff they quote are all good legal principles, but most are somewhat obsolete. And they apparently believe in coverture, which was abolished in the U.S. decades ago.

[fortinbras]

The Latin expressions work best for graduates of the Hogwarts School of Law.

Seriously, the use of Latin maxims is in serious decline in American courts. Black's Law Dictionary in its early editions carried tons of them, but the more recent edition eliminated a lot. There used to be textbooks on "law latin" but no more. Until about 1975 Lawyer's Co-op actually included in its Digest of the L.Ed. Supreme Court decision a section devoted to the Supreme Court's use of Latin maxims - but then eliminated it when they replaced that volume.

[Pottapaug1938]

The Latin expressions work best for graduates of the Hogwarts School of Law.

Seriously, the use of Latin maxims is in serious decline in American courts. Black's Law Dictionary in its early editions carried tons of them, but the more recent edition eliminated a lot. There used to be textbooks on "law latin" but no more. Until about 1975 Lawyer's Co-op actually included in its Digest of the L.Ed. Supreme Court decision a section devoted to the Supreme Court's use of Latin maxims - but then eliminated it when they replaced that volume.

When I began law school in September of 1974, I read through a copy of Black's Law Dictionary and saw page after page of Latin legal maxims. Throughout law school and the years when I practiced law, I never saw more than a handful of these maxims ever being used. However, that's all irrelevant to the wackadoosters for whom Black's, and other long-gone dictionaries such as Bouvier's, are treated as Magical Legal Spell Books. Simply use the magic words in the right combination, and poof! The bad old de facto court system dries up and blows away....

[wserra]

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh (who edits a frequently-amusing law blog called "The Volokh Conspiracy") has a list of his own "lost maxims of equity":

Equity abhors a nudnik.
Equity delights in a good practical joke.
He who seeks equity must do so with full pockets.
Equity is not for the squeamish.
Equity, schmequity.
Equity can be grumpy before its first cup of coffee.
Equity is crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.
Equity is a mean drunk.
Equity, like all of us, prefers the rich and good-looking.

They mean about as much to 21st century law as do the originals.

[Cathulhu]

I was watching a comedy play in the park decades ago--supposed to be the oldest known play in English, Gammer Gurton's Needle, and recall a scene involving a magic incantation. The actor knee-walked (he was supposed to be a dwarf) in a circle chanting "Boom-shaka-laka-laka" (I don't think that's part of the original play!). I'm thinking that would do Gabriela as much good as the advice she's getting over there.

[grixit]

Actually, we do still use maxims; they're just in english. They show up in tv shows all the time. "Fruit of the poisonous tree" for instance. But note how that doesn't automatically bring the trial to a grinding halt; it's juat a way of bringing a motion. But if the judge says "sorry, painting a naked cop marble white and having them stand in the park pretending to be a statue does not constitute illegal surveillance", then the evidence stands, in spite of the maxim.