A Plain Outline of Law

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877. Excerpt: ... A PLAIN OUTLINE OF LAW.. CHAPTER I. ON LAW IN GENERAL. The term Law bears a wide and comprehensive meaning. It has been defined as anything laid down as a rule of action, but the designation is used in various senses, according to the nature of the subject-matter to which it is applied. In its highest and widest sense, however, the term comprises every system or division of law--the Divine as well as the human, the moral and civil as well as the mental and physical laws. But in its ordinary and more limited acceptation, the appellation denotes the law or jurisprudence of any particular country, and as such embraces what is generally known as the national or municipal law of such country. Regarding law as a moral science, its end and aim can only be said to be effectually attained when the scales of justice are evenly poised, the true object of the law being in fact embodied in the word justice, which implies that what is due to every man, as his measure of right, shall be given to him. Every law, therefore, ought to be a rule of right in itself, and a rule of even-handed justice when administered. And although one system of law may essentiall, differ from another in some of its prominent features as will as its details, yet there are always certain fundamental principles of common justice underlying every rational and humane system of law. Supported by these broad and general principles, the law--taking the English law as an illustration--consists in the main of an aggregate of abstract and positive rules, which have been dictated by reason and experience; and these rules are from time to time so moulded and adapted as to keep pace with the ever-varying exigences of society, so that the growing rights of the community may be fully established and their du...