The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
Interpretation
The integrity and fairness of the law is being evaluated alongside the specific case at hand.
This quote emphasizes that the legal system's principles, fairness, and execution are under scrutiny just as much as the specific issue being adjudicated. When a case is brought to trial, it not only assesses the validity of the arguments presented but also reflects the broader justice system's reliability and ethics.
In practice
In a discussion about legal reforms, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of accountability in the justice system.
If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's natural god-given unalienable or constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.
However fascinating you may think you are, there is a limit to what you can know about yourself.
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.
UNDERSTANDING, n. A cerebral secretion that enables one having it to know a house from a horse by the roof on the house. Its nature and laws have been exhaustively expounded by Locke, who rode a house, and Kant, who lived in a horse.
Some go to sleep in an organization and never wake up, and those who do wake up put them selves to sleep again by joining another. This acquisitive movement is called expansion of thought, progress.
Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated with the mind of man.
That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.
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