Despite the constitutional limitations on the British judiciary, Bentham noticed a tendency in the judges to aggrandize their office through interpretative chicanery.
What is reasonable? "[F]or my part I will speak plainly," Bentham declared, "And confess that with me to be most evidently contrary to reason, is to be most evidently contrary to my reason, i.e., to what I like." The same tendency, Bentham concluded, was true of the judges and was obvious in their rulings.
"The trick is," Bentham wrote, "When [the judges] are satisfied that the thing is not Law, say it is not reason." This allows for long existing precedent to be overturned and replaced.
To counter the unbridled power of the judges, Bentham proposed that all laws be codified.
Modern American judges use many of the same tricks that Bentham inveighed against, but to a degree unimaginable in Bentham's day.
February 15 marks the 270th birthday of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham.
In these days, when judges are de facto legislators, what we ought to remember Bentham for is his perspicacious warning about the danger of judicial power.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/jeremy_bentham_and_the_judges.html
What is reasonable? "[F]or my part I will speak plainly," Bentham declared, "And confess that with me to be most evidently contrary to reason, is to be most evidently contrary to my reason, i.e., to what I like." The same tendency, Bentham concluded, was true of the judges and was obvious in their rulings.
"The trick is," Bentham wrote, "When [the judges] are satisfied that the thing is not Law, say it is not reason." This allows for long existing precedent to be overturned and replaced.
To counter the unbridled power of the judges, Bentham proposed that all laws be codified.
Modern American judges use many of the same tricks that Bentham inveighed against, but to a degree unimaginable in Bentham's day.
February 15 marks the 270th birthday of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham.
In these days, when judges are de facto legislators, what we ought to remember Bentham for is his perspicacious warning about the danger of judicial power.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/jeremy_bentham_and_the_judges.html
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