JB/067/109/001

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1828 May 19
Law Amendments or Penal Code

Imitation principle, the cause of that which is:
Greatest happiness principle the cause of that which ought to be.

As to the Judges of the English School, the
ends really aimed at by them such as as are above,
in direct hostility to the ends of justicity, of course the pursuit
of them can not be avowed. Bu some end must
be some purpose can not but be avowed. We know not what
we are about: the whim of the moment is our only
guide: this is language of this sort can not be held.
Nor yet can ends of justice as above be avowed, the contradiction
between profession and practice would be too
glaring. The land of realities not affording that
which is in demand, remains as the sole resource
the land of fictions. The fiction chosen is this. The
field of law is a plenum: a space filled for all
eternity by with the sort of matter that which properly belongs
to it. On each occasion All that remains for us to do is to declare
what with relation to the particular subject brought
before us the law is. This being the case Our business and
our endeavour is – so to frame the decision we are
about to pronounce, as that it may have to form be
part and parcel of what the law is. Well then
how is to be managed? In this way. Reports
of former decisions decisions pronounced in former cases are the materials compose the stock
we have to work upon. In those we look out
those cases which present themselves as bearing the
nearest resemblance to the particular case in relation
to which we are called upon to decide: our endeavour
then is to make our give to the decision we pronounce in
this case the closest resemblance possible to the structure general
complection of common to the aggregate of those cases: in
a word to imitate of this occasion what has been done
on such former occasions states of things as to us appear similar
to this one.

Identifier: | JB/067/109/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 67.
Date_1	1828-05-19	Marginal Summary Numbering	1
Box	067	Main Headings	law amendment; penal code
Folio number	109	Info in main headings field	law amendment or penal code
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c1 / d14 / e1
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	b&m 1828
Marginals	george bentham	Paper Producer	arthur moore; richard doane
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1828
Notes public		ID Number	21942
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