Here is the translation of the provided content into English: Western legal proverbs selected from law, rights, and justice Note: The "" (carriage return and line feed) was retained as instructed.

Author: Sun Xiaoxia, Compiler
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Our impression of legal maxims (legal aphorisms or legal proverbs) is that they are concise and implicit expressions of authority. It is said that scholars in Europe, America, and Japan all admire the use of article-style maxims written in Latin, and legal works invariably quote Latin legal maxims. This may be because ancient maxims can enhance the credibility of their arguments. However, in fact, the meaning of legal maxims is far from limited to this. Sometimes, maxims also imply a principle, an idea, a standard, or a method. For example, the well-known maxim "In cases of doubt, the judgment must be in favor of the defendant" is a classic example of a Latin legal maxim. It concisely and clearly states a legal principle that confuses judges and also provides judges with a legal method to resolve difficult issues. Of course, for most legal maxims derived from Latin, their interpretation and use require great caution. On one hand, this is because they are highly condensed, fully succinct, and even omit certain parts; on the other hand, due to the proposition of law in various complex situations, different interpretations may arise. As a result, every proposition of a legal maxim must exhibit a certain obscurity. Therefore, we must supplement appropriate words while interpreting them cautiously. Examining the development of legal maxims, we can find that they are broadly divided into two schools: Anglo-American legal maxims and Continental legal maxims. Legal maxims nurtured in the soil of the Anglo-American legal system are far fewer in number than those in the civil law system. Continental legal maxims originated in the soil of ancient Roman law and later continued to exist intact in the civil law system represented by German and French law as a legacy of Roman legal knowledge and wisdom. At the same time, they were impacted by changes in the times, although their appearance and form changed, they still retained their inherent style. During the development of Roman law, legal maxims also evolved. In the 2nd century BC, they were manifested in the refinement of legal principles and principles. From the 1st to the 3rd century AD, the doctrines of Roman legal scholars were adopted by the state judiciary as guiding doctrines, and legal research became an important matrix for the development of legal maxims. In the Eastern Roman Empire, law and politics were relatively separated, and law was purified academically. As a result, legal maxims as the essence of legal doctrines and knowledge were continuously refined and developed under the background of comprehensive national legal education. The 6th-century Corpus Juris Civilis (especially the main part, the Digest), was a great product of law nurtured over eight centuries. Of course, the Eastern Roman Empire (known as the Byzantine Empire), which differed greatly from the Western Roman Empire in terms of ethnicity, culture, society, economy, and religion, inherited the long-standing Latin world doctrines and legal propositions with proverbial characteristics intact, making it difficult to imagine (for example, in the Eastern Roman Empire where Greek was dominant, the number of people who could read Latin was very limited), but these were naturally included as current regulations and essentially as monuments of brilliant classical law in legislative works such as the Digest. Most of the rich legal maxim data we now possess also come from the Digest of this period. In Western countries, legal maxims are not expressed in English, German, or French but are recorded in the foreign language of Latin. Although most legal maxims originated in ancient times, there are also relatively young maxims that emerged within about 200 years. For example, one modern legal maxim in the civil law system expressing the principle of legal positivism is "No crime without a law, no punishment without a law." In the common law-centered legal system of the United Kingdom, legal maxims play the role of being obeyed like legal norms, and it is said, "In the absence of law, follow legal maxims" (Regulaprolege, SIDEFICITLEXINDEFAULTOFTHELAWTHEMAXIMrules.). Due to various combined influences, legal maxims in Anglo-American law are treated equally with common law. In legal education, legal maxims are elaborated as axioms. In the world of the Anglo-American legal system, Latin legal maxims remain vibrant to this day. According to statistics from Japanese scholars specializing in Latin legal maxims, there are roughly 5,000 legal maxims recorded in Latin. Of course, some of these are merely propositions with rearranged word order or sentence structure. We have only selected a portion of them here. Considering the current hot topics in legal research in our country, we have selectively compiled ancient legal maxims related to keywords such as law, rights, justice, judges, and procedures that are crucial to the development of the rule of law in China, and named this collection of legal maxims "Law, Rights, and Justice—A Collection of Western Legal Maxims." The following criteria were used for classification and arrangement: Under "The Nature of Law," we divided it into the characteristics of law, the relationship between law and justice, law and reason, law and custom, legal equity, and rules for handling legal conflicts. Under "Rights, Power, and Responsibility," we divided it into the authority of law, law and rights, rights and freedom, obligations and responsibility, and law and power. Under "Judges and Justice," we divided it into the duties of judges, courts and trials, judicial principles, and legal interpretation. Under "Legal Procedure," we divided it into due process, procedural rules, and evidence rules. Under "Civil Justice," we divided it into general principles, protection of property rights, contracts and debts, agency and representation, damages, and marriage, family, and inheritance. Under "Criminal Justice," we divided it into crimes and punishments. From these maxims, we can find the ancient basis of certain principles, rules, and maxims, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of them. Taking the "Nature of Law" section as an example, it involves the stability and certainty of law (e.g., "Without law, there is no law"), the principle and flexibility of law (e.g., "Extreme precision in law is to be blamed"), the efficacy and precedent of law (e.g., "Law prescribes for the future, judges decide for the past"), the publicity of law (e.g., "Law is ineffective without publicity"), the generality and universality of law (e.g., "Law is designed for the general public, not for individuals"), law and natural order (e.g., "Law respects natural order"), the implementation of law (e.g., "It is easy to make law, but difficult to enforce it"), law and exceptions (e.g., "Exceptions are always considered last"), law and principles (e.g., "Principles do not need to be argued"), law and justice (e.g., "Law is the measure of justice"), law and reason (e.g., "Law is the command of reason"), legislative reasons (e.g., "The reason for law is its soul"), law and emergency needs (e.g., "Emergency needs are higher than law"), law and custom (e.g., "Custom is another kind of law?"), law and equity (e.g., "Equity does not create law, but assists it"), and legal conflict rules (e.g., "When two rights conflict, the longer-standing right prevails"). There are also some ancient maxims that are not exclusively legal maxims but are closely related to law and our legal life, or have a close connection to our legal life. We have categorized these as "Others." Otherwise, these equally precious maxims would be left out of this system. These maxims or proverbs often share a common characteristic: they are common sense in life, in other words, they are not limited to the fields of law or legal studies. For example, the saying "Different trades are like different languages, but the principles are the same" illustrates the close connection between legal principles and common sense, or even between law and life. Life is the mother of law. Some of the reference work in the compilation of this book was supported by Zhou Wei, a student in the 2002 Master of Laws program at Zhejiang University, in the translation of Japanese materials. We extend our gratitude to her here.