Excerpt from The Philosophy of Law: Being Notes of Lectures Delivered During Twenty-Three Years 1852-1875; In the Inner Temple Hall London Indeed, the law in its most general sense, re garded as a rule of conduct, is founded upon principles recognized by all civilized communities; and whatever differences in. The mere administration of the law may appear among neighboring states, it will be found that the reason of the law is everywhere the same. But the law, While it concerns itself mainly with principles, is not a fixed science. Its definitions are not fixed and determinate like those of geometry, and are not therefore, and cannot in the nature of things be, certainly and positively expressed. A judge never decides general principles. He decides a case. It is for us to deduce the general principle afterwards. The reason is, that when a legislature promulgates a law, or a judge decides a case. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.