The Online Library of Liberty

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• Principles of Judicial Procedure, With the Outlines of a Procedure Code.
• Note By the Editor.
• Preface.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: General View—ends of Judicature.
• Chapter II.: Ends Apt and Unapt.
• Chapter III.: Procedure—its Relation to the Rest of the Law.
• Chapter IV.: Judiciary Establishment.
• Chapter V.: Procedure—its Subject-matters.
• Chapter VI.: All-comprehensive Arrangements.
• Chapter VII.: Practical General Rules.
• Chapter VIII.: Judicial Application.
• Chapter IX.: Proxies.
• Chapter X.: Judicial Communication.
• Chapter XI.: Evidence.
• Chapter XII.: Initiatory Hearing.
• Chapter XIII.: Defence, How Elicited.
• Chapter XIV.: Suits, Their Sorts.
• Chapter XV.: Suits, Continuance Of.
• Chapter XVI.: Suits—termination.
• Chapter XVII.: Suits, Their Stages.
• Chapter XVIII.: Means of Execution.
• Chapter XIX.: Counter-security.
• Chapter XX.: Remedies,—compensation.
• Chapter XXI.: Judicial Transfer.
• Chapter XXII.: Prehension.
• Chapter XXIII.: Jury-trial.
• Chapter XXIV.: Special Juries.
• Chapter XXV.: Grand Juries.
• Chapter XXVI.: Quasi-jury.
• Chapter XXVII.: Recapitulatory Examination, Or Quasi-trial.
• Chapter XXVIII.: Appeal and Quasi-appeal.
• Chapter XXIX.: Natural and Technical Systems Compared.
• Appendix A.: Initial Sketch of the Procedure Code.
• Appendix B.: Account-taking Judicatories.
• Appendix C.: British India—jury System.
• From the Right Honourable Sir Alexander Johnston, to the Right Honourable Charles W. Williams Wynn, President of the Board of Controul.
• The Rationale of Reward.
• Advertisement By the Editor.
• Remarks By Mr. Bentham.
• Preliminary Observations.
• Book I.—: Of Rewards In General.
• Chapter I.: Definitions.
• Chapter II.: Matter of Reward—sources.
• Chapter III.: Of Reward and Punishment Combined.
• Chapter IV.: Of the Union of Interest With Duty, and of Self-executing Laws.
• Chapter V.: Matter of Reward—reasons For Husbanding.
• Chapter VI.: Remuneration Ex Post Facto.
• Chapter VII.: Punition and Remuneration—their Relations.
• Chapter VIII.: Remuneration—where Hurtful.
• Chapter IX.: Remuneration—where Needless.
• Chapter X.: Proportion As to Rewards.
• Chapter XI.: Choice As to Rewards.
• Chapter XII.: Procedure As to Rewards.
• Chapter XIII.: Rewards to Informers.
• Chapter XIV.: Rewards to Accomplices.
• Chapter XV.: Competition As to Rewards.
• Chapter XVI.: Rewards For Virtue.
• Chapter XVII.: Accompaniments to Remuneration.
• Book II.—: Rewards Applied to Offices.
• Chapter I.: Salary—how a Reward.
• Chapter II.: Rules As to Emoluments.
• Chapter III.: Fees and Perquisites—none.
• Chapter IV.: Minimize Emolument.
• Chapter V.: No More Nominal Than Real.
• Chapter VI.: Couple Burthen With Benefit.
• Chapter VII.: By Emoluments Exclude Corruption.
• Chapter VIII.: Give Pensions of Retreat.
• Chapter IX.: Of the Sale of Offices.
• Chapter X.: Of Qualifications.
• Chapter XI.: Of Trust and Contract Management.
• Chapter XII.: Of Reforms.
• Book III.—: Reward Applied to Art and Science.
• Chapter I.: Art and Science—divisions.
• Chapter II.: Art and Science—advancement.
• Chapter III.: Art and Science—diffusion.
• Appendix.
• Leading Principles of a Constitutional Code, For Any State.
• Section I.: Ends Aimed At.
• Section II.: Principal Means Employed For the Attainment of the Above Ends.
• Liberty of the Press, and Public Discussion.
• Advertisement.
• Jeremy Bentham to the Spanish People.
• Letter I.: On the Liberty of the Press—the Approaching Eight Months’ Sleep of the Cortes—and the Exclusion of Experience From the Succeeding Cortes.
• Letter II.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings.
• Letter III.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings—continuation From Letter II.
• Letter IV.: On the Liberty of Public Discussion In Free Meetings—continuation of the Subject From Letter III.
• An Essay On Political Tactics, Or Inquiries Concerning the Discipline and Mode of Proceeding Proper to Be Observed In Political Assemblies: Principally Applied to the Practice of the British Parliament, and to the Constitution and Situation of the Nati
• Chapter I.: General Considerations.
• Chapter II.: Of Publicity.
• Chapter III.: Of the Place of Meeting and Its Dependencies.
• Chapter IV.: Of What Concerns the Members Present At a Legislative Assembly.
• Chapter V.: Of the Presidents and Vice-presidents Belonging to Political Assemblies.
• Chapter VI. *: of the Mode of Proceeding In a Political Assembly In the Formation of Its Decisions.
• Chapter VII.: Of the Proposal of Measures For Adoption.
• Chapter VIII.: Of the Different Acts Which Enter Into the Formation of a Decree.
• Chapter IX.: Of the Promulgation of Motions—of Bills—of Amendments, and Their Withdrawment.
• Chapter X.: Of the Drawing Up of Laws.
• Chapter XI.: Of Debates.
• Chapter XII.: Of Amendments.
• Chapter XIII.: Of Dilatory Motions, Or Motions of Adjournment.
• Chapter XIV.: Of Voting.
• Chapter XV.: Of Committees.
• Chapter XVI.: Of Formulas.
• The Book of Fallacies: From Unfinished Papers of Jeremy Bentham. Edited By a Friend.
• Preface By the Editor of the Original Edition.
• The Book of Fallacies.: Introduction.
• Section I.: A Fallacy, What.
• Section II.: Fallacies, By Whom Treated of Heretofore.
• Section III.: Relation of Fallacies to Vulgar Errors.
• Section IV.: Political Fallacies the Subject of This Work.
• Section V.: Division Or Classification of Fallacies
• Section VI.: Nomenclature of Political Fallacies.
• Section VII.: Contrast Between the Present Work and Hamilton’s “parliamentary Logic.”
• Part I.: Fallacies of Authority, the Subject of Which Is Authority In Various Shapes, and the Object to Repress All Exercise of the Reasoning Faculty.
• Chapter I.
• Chapter II.: The Wisdom of Our Ancestors; Or Chinese Argument—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter III.: Fallacy of Irrevocable Laws.
• Chapter IV.: No-precedent Argument—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter V.
• Chapter VI.: Laudatory Personalities— (ad Amicitiam.)
• Part II.: Fallacies of Danger, the Subject-matter of Which Is Danger In Various Shapes, and the Object to Repress Discussion Altogether, By Exciting Alarm.
• Chapter I.: Vituperative Personalities— (ad Odium.)
• Chapter II.
• Chapter III.: Fallacy of Distrust, Or, What’s At the Bottom?—( Ad Metum. )
• Chapter IV.: Official Malefactor’s Screen—( Ad Metum. )
• Chapter V.: Accusation-scarer’s Device—( Ad Metum. )
• Part III.: Fallacies of Delay, the Subject-matter of Which Is Delay In Various Shapes—and the Object, to Postpone Discussion, With a View of Eluding It.
• Chapter I.: The Quietist, Or “no Complaint”—( Ad Quietem )
• Chapter II.: Fallacy of False Consolation— (ad Quietem.)
• Chapter III.: Procrastinator’s Argument ( Ad Socordiam. )
• Chapter IV.: Snail’s-pace Argument.—( Ad Socordiam. )
• Chapter V.: Fallacy of Artful Diversion—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Part IV.: Fallacies of Confusion, the Object of Which Is, to Perplex, When Discussion Can No Longer Be Avoided.
• Chapter I.: Question-begging Appellatives—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter II.: Impostor Terms—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter III.: Vague Generalities—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter IV.: Allegorical Idols—( Ad Imaginationem. )
• Chapter V.: Sweeping Classifications—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter VI.: Sham Distinctions—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter VII.: Popular Corruption—( Ad Superbiam. )
• Chapter VIII.: Observations On the Seven Preceding Fallacies.
• Chapter IX.: Anti-rational Fallacies—( Ad Verecundiam. )
• Chapter X.: Paradoxical Assertion—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XI. :non-causa Pro Causa: Or, Cause and Obstacle Confounded—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XII.: Partiality-preacher’s Argument—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XIII.: The End Justifies the Means—( Ad Judicium. )
• Chapter XIV.: Opposer-general’s Justification:—not Measures But Men; Or, Not Men But Measures—( Ad Invidiam. )
• Chapter XV.: Rejection Instead of Amendment—( Ad Judicium. )
• Part V
• Chapter I.: Characters Common to All These Fallacies.
• Chapter II.: Of the Mischief Producible By Fallacies.
• Chapter III.: Causes of the Utterance of These Fallacies.
• Chapter IV.: Second Cause—interest Begotten-prejudice.
• Chapter V.: Third Cause—authority-begotten Prejudice.
• Chapter VI.: Fourth Cause—self-defence Against Counter-fallacies.
• Chapter VII.: Use of These Fallacies to the Utterers and Acceptors of Them.
• Chapter VIII.: Particular Demand For Fallacies Under the English Constitution.
• Chapter IX.: The Demand For Political Fallacies:—how Created By the State of Interests.
• Chapter X.: Different Parts Which May Be Borne In Relation to Fallacies.
• Chapter XI.: Uses of the Preceding Exposure.
• Anarchical Fallacies; Being an Examination of the Declarations of Rights Issued During the French Revolution.
• Advertisement.
• An Examination of the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen Decreed By the Constituent Assembly In France.
• Preamble.
• A Critical Examination of the Declaration of Rights.
• Declaration of the Rights and Duties of the Man and the Citizen, Anno 1795.
• Observations On Parts of the Declaration of Rights, As Proposed By Citizen Sieyes.
• Principles of International Law.
• Essay I.: Objects of International Law.
• Essay II.: Of Subjects, Or of the Personal Extent of the Dominion of the Laws.
• Essay III.: Of War, Considered In Respect of Its Causes and Consequences.
• Essay IV.: A Plan For an Universal and Perpetual Peace.
• Appendix. * —junctiana Proposal.
• A Protest Against Law-taxes, Showing the Peculiar Mischievousness of All Such Impositions As Add to the Expense of Appeal to Justice.
• Supply Without Burden; Or Escheat Vice Taxation: Being a Proposal For a Saving of Taxes By an Extension of the Law of Escheat, Including Strictures On the Taxes On Collateral Succession Comprised In the Budget of 7 Th December 1795.
• Preface.
• Section I.: General Idea.
• Section II.: Order of the Details.
• Section III.: Advantages.
• Section IV.: Originality.
• Section V.: Produce.
• Section VI.: Application.
• Section VII.: Heads of Objection, With Answers. †
• Section VIII.: Existing Law.
• Section IX.: Ancient Law.
• Section X.: Blackstone.
• Tax With Monopoly; Or Hints of Certain Cases In Which, In Alleviation of the Burden of Taxation, Exclusive Privileges May Be Given As Against Future Competitors, Without Producing Any of the Ill Effects, Which In Most Cases Are Inseparable From Everyth
• I.: Stock-brokers.
• II.: Bankers.

INTRODUCTION.

By procedure, is meant the course taken for the execution of the laws, viz. for the accomplishment of the will declared, or supposed to be declared, by them in each instance. Laws prescribing the course of procedure have on a former occasion been characterized by the term adjective laws, in contradistinction to those other laws, the execution of which they have in view, and which for this same purpose have been characterized by the correspondent opposite term, substantive laws.

For in jurisprudence, the laws termed adjective, can no more exist without the laws termed substantive, than in grammar a noun termed adjective, can present a distinct idea without the help of a noun of the substantive class, conjoined with it.

As in fact every act by which a course of procedure is commenced has for its end or object, the bringing about the execution of some law of the substantive class, so, in point of utility, it may be said that the course of procedure ought to have in every instance, for its main and primary end at least, the accomplishment of the will manifested in the body of substantive laws. For this is not only a use of it, but the only use for it.

The ultimate utility of it will therefore depend altogether upon the utility of the substantive laws, the execution of which is in eachinstance endeavoured to be brought about: unless the substantive law be conformable to the greatest happiness of the community, the use made of the body of adjective laws on that occasion cannot be conformable to that same end. But though this may with truth be given as the main and primary end of the course of procedure, it cannot however be given as the sole end; because in the pursuit of that same end, a variety of inconveniences are apt to occur, and indeed in a certain degree cannot several of them but occur—in every instance: hence result, as so many collateral or subordinate ends, the avoiding as far as possible the giving birth to those several inconveniences.

The code of procedure, then, is composed of the system or assemblage of adjective laws.

Of the substantive branch of the law, the only defensible object or end in view, is the maximization of the happiness of the greatest number of the members of the community in question.

Of the adjective branch of the law, the only defensible object, or say end in view, is the maximization of the execution and effect given to the substantive branch of the law.

The present proposed code is composed of an aggregate of arrangements, having the above for their object, or end in view.

Of every extensive body of law, the end, mainly at least, if not exclusively, in view, has been the greatest happiness of those by whom the body of law in question was made.

Consistently with the nature of man, and the preservation of his species, no other could any extensive body of law have had for its end in view. For proof of this position, see the Constitutional Code.

In a representative Democracy, if rightly constituted, the possessors of the constitutive or supreme authority are the aggregate body of the members fitted for self-government; and the possessors of the legislative authority are their delegates, and would represent their interests.

In the case of an Aristocracy, the interests of the members of the aristocracy, or the majority of them, would prevail; and in the case of a Monarchy, the interest of the monarch.

In a mixed monarchy, composed of the monarch and the aristocracy, it would be the conjunct interest of the monarch and the members of that same aristocracy that is to say, of the majority of those who act on the theatre of legislation.

In the case of a mixed monarchy, composed of the monarch, the aristocracy and the delegates, or say deputies, of the people, the conjunct interests of those same three authorities.

Thus much as to substantive law. But in the case of adjective law, or say procedure law, to a greater or lesser extent the law has had for its authors, in proportions infinitely diversified, legislative authority (in its several modification, and the judicial authority—in a word, the judges, who under the notion of interpreting, where, in fact, there was nothing to be interpreted—have been suffered, in effect, to legislate. The consequence is, that in correspondent proportions, this branch of the law has had for its object, or end in view, the interest of this class of the functionaries concerned in the making of it.

But more especially in the mode in which their remuneration has commonly been allotted to them, is their interest in a state of diametrical opposition to the interest of those for whose benefit the laws are everywhere professed to have been made.

By the author of these pages, no share in that profit was ever aimed at, or desired, nor at present could by possibility be received: his interest is therefore in the state of the greatest possible harmony with what he has made his duty; and accordingly, wheresoever it may have happened to him to have erred, the error will have had a deficiency not in moral, but in active and intellectual aptitude for its cause.

Among the arguments employed, and which, since some recent occurrences, have been made use of, for stopping the progress of improvement (and securing against diminution the addition made every year to the number of those who, by and for the benefit of lawyers, are punished for not knowing what they have been carefully kept under an impossibility of knowing,) one is—You cannot provide for everything; therefore you ought not to provide for anything more than what has been provided for already.

To understand the force and value of this argument—the aptitude, moral and intellectual, of those by whom it has been employed—employ it to other branches of art and science.

Without going out of the field of legislation, apply it to substantive law. Apply it to medicine: you cannot cure all diseases—why give yourselves so much trouble in the endeavour to cure any more than you can already.

For the enactment, or say establishment, of any law, or of any mass of the matter of law—of two species of power—the intellectual and the political—the concurrence, or say conjunction, is necessary: intellectual, that of the legislative draughtsman; political, that of the legislator. The political cannot, in the most improved state of society, be with propriety in hands other in number than a select few: in the least improved, it has everywhere been of necessity in the hands of a single person.

But before it comes to be presented to the legislative assembly in the legislation chamber, there is another tribunal in which, with great advantage to the public, every question of law which is invested with a certain degree of importance may be introduced—and that is the public-opinion tribunal. For the purpose of introducing into this tribunal a proposed law, the right of initiation appertains at once to every person who can find adequate inducement for giving exercise to it.

In the legislative assembly, proposed laws cannot without confusion be taken into consideration, and compared together, in any considerable numbers. But by the public-opinion tribunal, they may be subjected to this operation, in a number altogether unlimited.

To introduce, or attempt to introduce, into the legislative assembly, a mass of law of a new complexion, before the minds of men were to a certain degree prepared for the reception of it, would be lost labour, and a hopeless task. Not so the like attempt in relation to the public-opinion tribunal.

Why set about drawing up a perfect body of laws—that is to say, one which to yourself you expect will appear so?—why give yourself any such trouble? Suppose the task of drawing it up accomplished, can you seriously expect to see it, in that place, put to use?—can you flatter yourself with any such hopes?

Answer: No. But, to a person who has leisure, and who has the means of living while the work is going on, that consideration is no sufficient reason for declining the task.

In the present instance, the work must of necessity be the work of many years—say six, eight, ten years. Now, suppose it a settled rule that no such work shall be begun to be drawn up till a probability of its being immediately taken into consideration in the legislative assembly (and ultimately adopted) has presented itself,—what is the consequence? Answer: That the necessary time in question—the six, eight, ten years—will be lost; the public for that whole length of time deprived of the receipt and enjoyment of this all-comprehensive instrument of felicity.

Oh! but this is innovation!—Oh yes—unquestionably; it is innovation. But what follows? From misery, whatever be the shape of it, a change to tranquillity is innovation. From war, whencesoever it comes, change to peace is innovation. War, misery, wickedness in every shape—are they then to be perpetuated?—all for fear of innovation?

Whoever takes in hand these pages, will do well, in the first place, to lay out of his mind everything that belongs to the existing system, baptized the technical. He will see there, when the time comes, nothing but confusion—a purposely and most elaborately organized system of confusion. Of itself, it accordingly explains nothing: explanation it requires itself throughout, so far from being capable of affording it. In the here proposed system, styled the natural, he will see the course prescribed by common experience and common sense. The purpose being to give execution and effect to a system of arrangements and ordinances, by elicitation made of the truth of facts, the question will always be, whether this or that one of the arrangements made, or supposed made (supposed only in the case of the unwritten law,) has application to the individual case in question.

For arriving at the truth, the natural course, it will be seen, is the same in all cases. Under the technical system, the course pursued is different, according to the various judicatories employed, with their different portions of the field of law (logical or geographical) assigned to them, or occupied by them, with corresponding different sets of powers and duties—common law, equity law, civil law, penal law, ecclesiastical law, admiralty law, general sessions law, petty sessions law, and so on—all differing so widely from one another, while pretending to be directed to one and the same object,—the discovery of truth in regard to facts, by means of evidence. All of them good, it is impossible they should be; all bad, it is altogether possible they should be, and will accordingly be seen to be; all unapt—relation had to such their professed and falsely pretended purpose; all good,—relation had to their non-professed, but disguised, and endeavoured-to-be-concealed, purpose;—viz. the promotion of the particular and sinister interest of the institutors, at the expense and by the sacrifice of, the universal interest.

Of the proposed system, these are the leading features:—

1. Expense of litiscontestation, defrayed as far as possible by the public.

2. Cases of necessity excepted, attendance of parties in their own case, not less universal and punctual than that of third persons in the character of witnesses.

3. With ample precaution against abuse, necessary expense of evidence, and professional assistance, provided by the public, for those who are not themselves in a condition to defray it.

4. For the verity of whatever statement is made on a judicial occasion, or actually or eventually for a judicial purpose, effectual provision will be made,—and that the same in all cases,—by appropriate punishment, and without the intervention of any useless ceremony.