Extreme law (rigor of law) is the greatest injury; strict law is great punishment.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) The rigid application of law without equity produces injustice — courts must temper strict legal rules with reason to avoid results that defeat the very purpose of the law.

Where this applies

• A judge forecloses on a family's home over a one-dollar tax underpayment, applying the letter of the law so rigidly that the result is grossly unjust.
• A court enforces a contract penalty clause so strictly that a small business owes ten times the value of the original deal for a minor breach.
• A parking enforcement officer has a car towed and impounded — costing the owner thousands — for being parked two minutes past the meter's expiration.