Consequences Of The Principles Of Different Governments on The Simplicity Of Civil And Criminal Laws on Superphysics

The Simplicity of civil Laws in different Governments

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

MONARCHIES have more complex laws than despotic governments because monarchies need courts of judicature which decide on cases.

The decisions must be preserved and learnt so that:

we may judge in the same manner to-day as yesterday
the lives and property of the citizens may be as certain and fixed

In monarchies, the administration of justice decides:

The Simplicity of criminal Laws in Different Governments

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It is generally said that justice should be administered with us as in Turkey.

Is it possible, then, that the most ignorant of all nations should be the most clear-sighted in a point which it most behoves mankind to know?

In Monarchies, Ministers Should not sit as Judges

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Chapter 6: In Monarchies, Ministers Should not sit as Judges

There are still many states where many judges to decide exchequer causes, and where the ministers judge cases.

In what Governments the Sovereign may be Judge

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Machiavelli says:

Florence lost its liberty because its people did not judge cases of high-treason as a body, as was customary at Rome. Instead, they had 8 judges. Those few are corrupted by a few.

The Insufficiency of the Japanese Laws

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

EXCESSIVE punishments may even corrupt a despotic government as seen in Japan.

There, almost all crimes are punished with death because disobedience to the great Japanese emperor is reckoned an enormous crime. The question is not so much to correct the delinquent, as to vindicate the emperor’s authority.

The Just Proportion Between Punishments and Crimes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

IT is an essential point, that there should be a certain proportion in punishments, because it is essential that a great crime should be avoided rather than a smaller, and that which is more pernicious to society rather than that which is less.

The Severity of Punishments in different Governments

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

THE severity of punishments is fitter for despotic governments, whose principle is terror, than for a monarchy or a republic, whose spring is honour and virtue.

In moderate governments, the love of one’s country, shame, and the fear of blame, are restraining motives, capable of preventing a multitude of crimes. Here the greatest punishment of a bad action is conviction. The civil laws have, therefore, a softer way of correcting, and do not require so much force and severity.

The Spirit of the Roman Senate

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

UNDER the consulate of Acilius Glabrio and Piso, the Acilian law was made to prevent the intriguing for places.

Dio says that the senate engaged the consuls to propose it, by reason that C. Cornelius, the tribune, had resolved to cause more severe punishments to be established against this crime; to which the people seemed greatly inclined.

The Prince's Clemency

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

CLEMENCY is the characteristic of monarchs. In republics, whose principle is virtue, it is not so necessary.

In despotic governments, where fear predominates, it is less customary, because the great men are to be restrained by examples of severity. It is more necessary in monarchies, where they are governed by honour, which frequently requires what the very law forbids. Disgrace is here equivalent to chastisement; and even the forms of justice are punishments. This is because particular kinds of penalty are formed by shame, which on every side invades the delinquent.