Legal Principle Quotes

That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.

I think most defense attorneys honestly believe the principle that says, 'Better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person be convicted.'

I had a very long discussion with Justice Gorsuch in my office, and he pointed out to me that he is a co-author of a whole book on precedent. So, someone who devotes that much time to writing a book on precedent, I think, understands how important a principle that is in our judicial system.

The law is hard but it is the law.

An eye for an eye is elemental.

All judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape.

The presumption of innocence only means you don't go right to jail.

Necessity gives the law and does not itself receive it.

It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.

I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

No one should be judge in his own case.

Whoever is the first to cry "Stop the thief" is the one who is guilty.

The ruling authority is liable to raise a claim which could justify a deviation from the law by saying: The law is supposed to serve the country. The law is merely one consideration, there are additional considerations which are no less important; the good of the country is one such consideration and it could possibly override the law….this is a very dangerous claim. The saying that patriotism is the last refuge of the charlatan is well known. This argument, taken alone, is liable to topple the principle of the legality of government and the rule of law together with it.

You can't charge somebody with something they have not done.

The principle of equity first came into evidence in Roman jurisprudence and was derived by analogy from the physical meaning of the word.

It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there is no offense.

The agreement of the parties cannot make that good which the law maketh void.

The obligation of any judge is to decide the case before the court, and the nature of the issue presented will largely determine the appropriate scope of the principle on which its decision should rest.

I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.

Executive privilege is nowhere to be found in the Constitution, and thus is a very limited principle.

What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

Auditur et altera pars. (The other side shall be heard as well.)

The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained through all its narrow turnings.

Common law is common right.

People are innocent till proven otherwise. All people are.