A common-law reference, free to all
Drawn from Coke, Bacon, Blackstone, Bouvier, Broom, Wharton, Jackson, and Justinian's Digest — every maxim, with its Latin original, plain English translation, source citation, and the situations where it applies.
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What are maxims of law?
Maxims of law are not modern inventions. They are the distilled judgments of two thousand years of common-law jurisprudence — the rules that govern Coke, Bacon, Blackstone, Story, and the founding generation who built the American constitutions on top of them.
Featured maxim
An argument drawn from inconvenience is valid in law, for the law will not permit any inconvenience.
Argumentum ab inconvenienti est validum in lege.
When an interpretation of law would produce absurd or impractical results, the inconvenience itself is evidence that the interpretation is wrong.
Co. Litt. 66a; Broom, Max. 184; Weisman, 8g
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