Legal maxim Quotes
The king ought not to be under any man, but under God and under the law, for the law makes the king. Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo et lege, quia lex facit regem.
Legal maxim
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The Emperor had made his brother King of Holland, thinking of it as an unimportant backwater of the French Empire. But Louis took his oath and job very seriously, and although he did not have the great talent of his brother, he made a serious effort to be a good king.
The statement so offended the Lords—the highest court of England—that he was imprisoned by the Lords and not released until he had recanted the position. The argument goes on today in many countries incuding the United States.
William the Conqueror. See Henry of Huntington for another similar description of the King's authority.
The early human idea that human rulers must somehow divine and/or designated and supported by the deity was present over many cultures and geographies.
She was Queen of Scotland and claimed the English throne as well. While Elizabeth I was on the throne of England, Mary claimed that the court had no jurisdiction over an absolute monarch. Her son was in France at the time but eventually succeeded to the Scottish throne as James VI and the English throne as James I.
This quotation illustrates the negative attitudes towards democracy that existed with many “leaders” of the time. Stuyvesant was appointed by and reported to the Dutch West India Company—not to the government of Holland. New Amsterdam was a commercial venture just as most of the English American Colonies were. Stuyvesant was not a particularly good governor in terms of both making money for the company or governing the new city.
This statement has represented the reality of governments before and after.
Some of the Patriots of Early America realized that the oppressions of British rule were coming from Parliament and initially took the position that only the King could make laws for the colonies and not Parliament. Therefore, they were as Englishmen challenging illegal English laws. Most American hostility was directed at Parliament and not the King. However, once there was any physical resistance, King George came down with such a heavy hand that American hatred transferred to him. For related quotes on the King/Parliament issue, see {639145}, {639143}, {639142}, {639141}, {639140}, & {639137}
This is one of the passages of the Bible that Christian Kings cited in expecting obedience. Most of the monarchs took this passage to mean that God had selected and appointed them to rule.
Typical of the times, the king was accountable to no one for anything. 200 years later, most of the world have accepted the principle that no one is above the law and that every leader is accountable to the people.
A legal maxim is an established principle or proposition of law, and a species of aphorism and general maxim. The word is apparently a variant of the Latin maxima, but this latter word is not found in extant texts of Roman law with any denotation exactly analogous to that of a legal maxim in the Medieval or modern definition, but the treatises of many of the Roman jurists on regular definitiones and sententiae iuris are to some degree collections of maxims. Most of the Latin maxims originate from the Medieval era in European states that used Latin as their legal language.
