Concept
Legal maxim
Overview
A legal maxim is an established principle or proposition of law, and a species of aphorism and general maxim. The word is considered to be a variant of the Latin maxima, though no exactly analogous word to maxim is found in surviving Roman law texts. However, 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.
The attitude of early English commentators towards the maximal of the law was one of adoration. In Thomas Hobbes, Doctor and Student (p. 26), they are described as of the same strength and effect in the law as statutes. Francis Bacon observed in the preface to his collection of maxims: The use of maxims will be "in deciding doubt and helping soundness of judgment, but, further, in gracing argument, in correcting unprofitable subtlety, and reducing the same to a more sound and substantial sense of law, in reclaiming vulgar errors, and, generally, in the amendment in some measure of the very nature and complexion of the whole law".
A similar note was sounded in Scotland; the pages of Morison's Dictionary of Decisions show how frequently in the older Scots law, questions respecting the rights, remedies and liabilities of individuals were determined by an immediate reference to legal maxims.
In later times, less value was to the maxims of the law, as the development of civilization and the increasing complexity of business relations showed the necessity of qualifying the propositions which they express.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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10. That the law of nature taketh place after security from others to observe the same. 11. The right of nature not to be taken away by custom, nor the law of nature abrogated by any act. 12. Why the dictates of nature are called laws. 13. Whatsoever is against conscience in a man that is his own judge, is against the law of nature. 14. Of _malum pœnæ, malum culpæ_; virtue and vice. 15. Aptitude to society…
Thomas Hobbes, The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04
States what Legal maxim is; the author is tied to Legal maxim in the knowledge graph.
Another division of Lawes, is into Naturall and Positive. Naturall are those which have been Lawes from all Eternity; and are called not onely Naturall, but also Morall Lawes; consisting in the Morall Vertues, as Justice, Equity, and all habits of the mind that conduce to Peace, and Charity; of which I have already spoken in the fourteenth and fifteenth Chapters. Positive, are those which have not been for Eternity…
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
States what Legal maxim is; the author is tied to Legal maxim in the knowledge graph.
In the former case, however, the law has the form of an imperative, because in them, as rational beings, we can suppose a pure will, but being creatures affected with wants and physical motives, not a holy will, that is, one which would be incapable of any maxim conflicting with the moral law. In their case, therefore, the moral law is an imperative, which commands categorically, because the law is unconditioned…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
States what Legal maxim is.
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Jurisprudence.