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    "title": "MAXIMS",
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    "verified_text": "maxims, legal. a maxim is an established principle or proposition. the latin term _maxima_ is not to be found in roman law with any meaning exactly analogous to that of a legal maxim in the modern sense of the word, but the treatises of many of the roman jurists on _regulae definitiones_, and _sententiae juris_ are, in some measure, collections of maxims (see an article on \"latin maxims in english law\" in _law mag. and rev._ xx. 285); fortescue (_de laudibus_, c. 8) and du cange treat _maxima_ and _regula_ as identical. the attitude of early english commentators towards the maxims of the law was one of unmingled adulation. in _doctor and student_ (p. 26) they are described as \"of the same strength and effect in the law as statutes be.\" coke (co. _litt._ 11 a) says that a maxim is so called \"quia maxima est ejus dignitas et certissima auctoritas, atque quod maxime omnibus probetur.\" \"not only,\" observes bacon in the preface to his _collection of maxims_, \"will the use of maxims 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; and it has been well observed that \"a glance at the pages of morrison's _dictionary_ or at other early reports will 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\" (j. m. irving, _encyclo. scots law_, s.v. \"maxims\"). in later times less value has been attached to the maxims of the law, as the development of civilization and the increasing complexity of business relations have shown the necessity of qualifying the propositions which they enunciate (see stephen, _hist. crim. law_, ii. 94 _n: yarmouth_ v. _france_, 1887, 19 q.b.d., per lord esher, at p. 653, and american authorities collected in bouvier's _law dict._ s.v. \"maxim\"). but both historically and practically they must always possess interest and value. a brief reference need only be made here, with examples by way of illustration, to the field which the maxims of the law cover. commencing with rules founded on public policy, we may note the famous principle--_salus populi suprema lex_ (xii. tables: bacon, _maxims_, reg. 12)--\"the public welfare is the highest law.\" it is on this maxim that the coercive action of the state towards individual liberty in a hundred matters is based. to the same category belong the maxims--_summa ratio est quae pro religione facit_ (co. _litt._ 341 a)--\"the best rule is that which advances religion\"--a maxim which finds its application when the enforcement of foreign laws or judgments supposed to violate our own laws or the principles of natural justice is in question; and _dies dominicus non est juridicus_, which exempts sunday from the lawful days for juridical acts. among the maxims relating to the crown, the most important are _rex non potest peccare_ (2 rolle r. 304)--\"the king can do no wrong\"--which enshrines the principle of ministerial responsibility, and _nullum tempus occurrit regi_ (2 co. inst. 273)--\"lapse of time does not bar the crown,\" a maxim qualified by various enactments in modern times. passing to the judicial office and the administration of justice, we may refer to the rules--_audi alteram partem_--a proposition too familiar to need either translation or comment; _nemo debet esse judex in propria sua causa_ (12 co. _rep._ 114)--\"no man ought to be judge in his own cause\"--a maxim which french law, and the legal systems based upon or allied to it, have embodied in an elaborate network of rules for judicial challenge; and the maxim which defines the relative functions of judge and jury, _ad quaestionem facti non respondent judices, ad quaestionem legis non respondent juratores_ (8 co. _rep._ 155). the maxim _boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem_ (ch. prec. 329) is certainly erroneous as it stands, as a judge has no right to \"extend his jurisdiction.\" if _justitiam_ is substituted for _jurisdictionem_, as lord mansfield said it should be (1 burr. 304), the maxim is near the truth. a group of maxims supposed to embody certain fundamental principles of legal right and obligations may next be referred to: (a) _ubi jus ibi remedium_ (see co. _litt._ 197 b)--a maxim to which the evolution of the flexible \"action on the case,\" by which wrongs unknown to the \"original writs\" were dealt with, was historically due, but which must be taken with the gloss _damnum absque injuria_--\"there are forms of actual damage which do not constitute legal injury\" for which the law supplies no remedy; (b) _actus dei nemini facit injuriam_ (2 blackstone, 122)--and its allied maxim, _lex non cogit ad impossibilia_ (co. _litt._ 231 b)--on which the whole doctrine of _vis major_ (_force majeure_) and impossible conditions in the law of contract has been built up. in this category may also be classed _volenti non fit injuria_ (wingate, _maxims_), out of which sprang the theory--now profoundly modified by statute--of \"common employment\" in the law of employers' liability; see _smith_ v. _baker_, 1891, a.c. 325. other maxims deal with rights of property--_qui prior est tempore, potior est jure_ (co. _litt._ 14 a), which consecrates the position of the _beati possidentes_ alike in municipal and in international law; _sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas_ (9 co. _rep._ 59), which has played its part in the determination of the rights of adjacent owners; and _domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium_ (5 co. _rep._ 92)--\"a man's house is his castle,\" a doctrine which has imposed limitations on the rights of execution creditors (see execution). in the laws of family relations there are the maxims _consensus non concubitus facit matrimonium_ (co. _litt._ 33 a)--the canon law of europe prior to the council of trent, and still law in scotland, though modified by legislation in england; and _pater is est quem nuptiae demonstrant_ (see co. _litt._ 7 b), on which, in most civilized countries, the presumption of legitimacy depends. in the interpretation of written instruments, the maxim _noscitur a sociis_ (3 _term reports_, 87), which proclaims the importance of the context, still applies. so do the rules _expressio unius est exclusio alterius_ (co. _litt._ 210 a), and _contemporanea expositio est optima et fortissima in lege_ (2 co. _inst._ 11), which lets in evidence of contemporaneous user as an aid to the interpretation of statutes or documents; see _van diemen's land co._ v. _table cape marine board_, 1906, a.c. 92, 98. we may conclude this sketch with a miscellaneous summary: _caveat emptor_ (hob. 99)--\"let the purchaser beware\"; _qui facit per alium facile per se_, which affirms the principal's liability for the acts of his agent; _ignorantia juris neminem excusat_, on which rests the ordinary citizen's obligation to know the law; and _vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt_ (2 co. _inst._ 690), one of the maxims in accordance with which courts of equity administer relief. among other \"maxims of equity\" come the rules that \"he that seeks equity must do equity,\" i.e. must act fairly, and that \"equity looks upon that as done which ought to be done\"--a principle from which the \"conversion\" into money of land directed to be sold, and of money directed to be invested in the purchase of land, is derived. the principal collections of legal maxims are: _english law_: bacon, _collection of some principal rules and maxims of the common law_ (1630); noy, _treatise of the principal grounds and maxims of the law of england_ (1641, 8th ed., 1824); wingate, _maxims of reason_ (1728); francis, _grounds and rudiments of law and equity_ (2nd ed. 1751); lofft (annexed to his reports, 1776); broom, _legal maxims_ (7th ed. london, 1900). _scots law_: lord trayner, _latin maxims and phrases_ (2nd ed., 1876); stair, _institutions of the law of scotland_, with index by more (edinburgh, 1832). _american treatises_: a. i. morgan, _english version of legal maxims_ (cincinnati, 1878); s. s. peloubet, _legal maxims in law and equity_ (new york, 1880). (a. w. r.)",
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