4 October

Scene from the Salem witch trials. I love the law, the idea of a 'trial', where evidence has to be presented and then assessed by ordinary people, and against precedents in case law. Humans always have wondered how to decide what is correct or right, and many think they have some quick way of doing it that bypasses some sort of trial - some 'objective' method that removes the need to present evidence and have it weighed. It can't be done, even science uses its own forms of trials to test what is a fact, and what isn't. The law - and I think this is its other main genius - shows us a way to reconcile the specific and the general. Normally we oppose those two things, we say you either have specifics, or general principles. In law those aren't separate, every case (specific) can alter precedent, but precedent (general) also shapes how a specific case is tried.