No empire lasts forever.
As the 31st of August approaches, I’m reminded of the eventual failures of empires. In their youths, they are strong, full of life, full of formless tension driving them to greater heights. In the proceeding centuries, they become bloated, fed each day on the fruits of their success while ignoring the rot within until one day, their leaders are bought and sold at the edge of a sword.
The roots of a very Latin tragedy just waiting to erupt in full bloom.
While I was doing my bit of studying, I came across a section on the system of equity which, eventually, gave rise to the Court of Chancery. It was interesting to read about royal emissaries issuing forth to dispense ‘King’s Justice’, and the theory behind it: very Hobbesian. If the King is the source of the law, then it must follow that, as source of the law, the actions of the King must not fall under the ambit of the law. If such is the case, then at the King’s behest, plaintiffs with no remedy at common law can seek redress from the King, or in this instance, the King’s emissaries. Or something like that, eh?
This oddity soon gave birth to the Court of Chancery once the practice of referring such cases to the General Eyre was discontinued, sometime in or by the reign of Richard III. At first glance, it appeared to operate like a back channel past common law, until I realised that it was as a supplement to common law.
What has this got to do with politics? I don’t know, but the curious phenomenon of blogs these days should give clues. When mediums of expression become silenced, and when versions of truth meted out by the incumbent envelop themselves in the cloak of authority-by-mandate, even Michael Soosai finds a final court of appeal in the public. But let’s not kid ourselves over such overblown self-importance, ya?
