The Grumpies ‘Intent’ Law

There’s nothing wrong with our laws other than too many lawyers believe ‘it’s the role of any good lawyer to find breaches (loopholes) in the law and exploit them.’

Literalist judge Lord Tenterden may have stipulated, in the 19th century, that the letter rather than the spirit/intent of the law should be observed, ”regardless of the consequences,” but I’m sure he didn’t mean for unprincipled lawyers to use the letter of the law as a stick with which to beat our justice system to death. But that is precisely what’s happening. Too many criminals and fat cats have smart lawyers who use the letter of the law to avoid justice on a technicality. Their knowledge of evidential procedure is dedicated to locating minor errors or breaches of the finer points of law that will allow them to demand an acquittal or a guilty verdict being declared unsafe. As a consequence, many decisions are handed down that offend common sense and fair play.

The law, in its present form, is a big earner for so many lawyers. That’s why we’ve been stuck with it for two hundred years. If lawyers have anything to do with it, we’ll be stuck with it for another couple of hundred years.

No problem. The Grumpies ‘Intent‘ law embodies the spirit/intent of the law with the letter of the law. ‘Intent’ will, henceforth, have precedence over the letter of the law for those seeking justice in our courtrooms – as intended when King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215.

Note: The rider attached to the 63 provisions of Magna Carta 1215 proclaims that: “An oath has been sworn, on the one hand by us and on the other by the barons, that all the aforesaid provisions shall be observed in good faith and without evil intent.”

So much for all the crapshit the liberal intelligentsia smugly dispense about Magna Carta being the seminal document of English constitutional practice to which the legal profession is devoutly committed.