Nancy Gibbs Quotes

The unchanging character of law is the only basis on which continuous action can rest. Without it man would be but as the traveler over endless morasses; the builder on quicksands; the mariner without compass or rudder, driven successively whithersoever changing winds may blow

The multiplication of laws undermines the rule of law.

It is best that laws should be so constructed as to leave as little as possible to the decision of those who judge.

Law is largely crystallized custom.

There is not, in the whole compass of human affairs, so noble a spectacle as that which is displayed in the progress of jurisprudence; where we may contemplate the cautious and unwearied exertion of a succession of wise men, through a long course of ages, withdrawing every case, as it arises, from the dangerous power of discretion, and subjecting it to inflexible rules.

It is better that the law should be certain than that every judge should speculate upon improvements in it.

The man-made laws have been made by men who have not perceived the final goal towards which they are making. And that is why it is so important to insist upon the final thing first, and then all the regulations, all the disciplines, will follow.

The principal purpose of stare decisis is to protect reliance interest and further stability in the law.

Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.

It would then be most admirably adapted to the purposes of justice, if laws properly enacted were, as far as circumstances admitted, of themselves to mark out all cases, and to abandon as few as possible to the discretion of the judge.

There cannot be a law-abiding society if no one knows in advance what law they are to abide by, but must wait for judges to create ex post facto legal rulings based on “evolving standards” rather than known rules.

… the magistrate should know what law he is to administer, that the subject should know under what law he is to live.

The biggest drag on global growth in the coming decade will be lack of adherence to the rule of law

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws

China has not established the rule of law and thus there is no justice.

Both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have law degrees but they do not know what the rule of law means.

The Dutch public has always been accustomed to being treated according to the letter of the law.

Bad facts make bad law.

I might not like a statute... but if you know what to expect, you can plan. The law is static. It's stable. It gives you confidence. You know you have to act a certain way.

A written constitution guides and directs the application of law in a way utterly unlike oral guidance. It reminds us that the certainty and consistency of legal application is essential.

I'm a big fan of the rule of law.

If we lived in a world where we had the rule of a judge, rather than the rule of law, you would have seen an absolute sea change, an avulsive change in the law as it was interpreted, applied and rendered by our court.

The first and most important component in nation building is LAW. Law is the source of national Cohesion.

A government of laws without men is as visionary as a government of men without laws.

What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is law what must be enacted and obeyed, whether or not it is on the books, if things are to go right?