Procedure

17 Aug 1804

Ch. Non-homologation

From these /the above/ observations may be deduced, and not without practical advantage, the idea of those distinguishable sorts or qualities of jurisprudential law: 1. a sort of law good /purely good/ /doubly/ in itself, and at the same time good in /by/ respect of conformity - in respect of its conformity or ad [...?] to precedents: 2. a sort of law bad in itself, but good in respect of its conformity: 3. a sort of law doubly bad - bad in itself, and bad for disconformity (or say want of conformity) besides.

Meantime, in the course of the many ages that have intervened since the formation of the first collection of the raw materials of jurisprudential law, the state of society has undergone prodigious change - civilization has taken ample strides. What is the consequence? - That among the decisions which when first pronounced were conformable to the dictates of original utility would not be so pronounced at present /in these our times/: that consequently the general rules deducible from these particular decisions are not conformable to the dictates of original and immediate utility as they stand at present. Thus it is that to the mass of jurisprudential law bad in itself from the first, and if good in any respect good only by conformity, we must add another mass of jurisprudential law which though originally good in itself is become bad by lapse of time.