Question of the Week
What’s Your Favorite Law and Why?
Posted Feb 18, 2009 2:18 PM CST
By Molly McDonough
We do a fair bit of Web surfing over here at ABAJournal.com and often come up empty when searching for treasure. But we were delighted the other day to dig up this gem in which Colorado's MileHive asked ABA President H. Thomas Wells a series of questions for a law series.
Our favorite was the question asking Wells to share his favorite law and explain why he likes it. Wells' answer:
"This is a bit obscure, but the rule against perpetuities. As you probably know, the rule against perpetuities is a rule of future interest law generally used in estate planning. This rule says that the property right or a right in a piece of property must vest, if ever, within the live or lives in being plus 21 years. It is my favorite because it was the linchpin of the movie Body Heat. It is the only time that I have ever seen really arcane, sort of boring, estate planning rule of law become the central piece of a Hollywood movie."
This made us wonder how you'd answer.
So in the comments section, please answer this question: What's your favorite law? Don't forget to tell us why.
Read last week's answers to this question: Are Partners Banned From ‘Fraternizing’ With Associates at Your Firm?
Our favorite answer:
Posted by Hadley V. Baxendale: "I have found that a healthier work relationship occurs in smaller firms where the partner/associate distinction is softened. Each has to respect the other’s work, knowledge, expertise and perspective, and sometimes the associate’s is better than the partner's. Occasional social interaction is healthy, such as drinks after work, and no reason a true friendship can’t form. Why can you have a friendship between two associates, or two partners, but not between a 6-year associate and a second-year partner? Is there really a grand metamorphosis? As for sexual shenanigans, those will occur regardless of rules, but perhaps open socializing makes it less likely than furtive get-togethers."
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Comments
J.D.
Feb 18, 2009 4:14 PM CST
International law. I’m a big fan of fiction.
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B. McLeod
Feb 18, 2009 5:08 PM CST
The law of gravity, because it helps me keep my feet on the ground.
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JD
Feb 18, 2009 8:03 PM CST
Murphy’s law seems to be my current favorite - there is no better way to describe the current state of the economy.
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Kevin
Feb 19, 2009 9:50 AM CST
The TARP. I can’t wait for the diversity bubble to reflate.
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K (from Kafka's "The Trial"
Feb 19, 2009 5:17 PM CST
My favorite is the law forbidding the consumption of beer in a motor vehicle. A defendant criticized a judge in the newspaper for “defining” a different law which punished innocent drivers (the Supreme Court later ruled that the legislative branch had already defined the statute - resulting in the local court executing an about face.
- The judge, a former state senator and member of the liquor control committee and judiciary committee) found the defendant guilty of consuming beer in a motor vehicle.
The law forbidding the consumption of beer in a motor vehicle became effective ten months AFTER the judge convicted the defendant.
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L
Feb 20, 2009 6:54 AM CST
I’m a “tax lizard,” as one of my law school professors used to call us, so I love the federal tax code - especially the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax sections.
But, very seriously, I woul d have to say that, as both a woman and a non-religious person, my absolute favorite law is the First Amendment to the Constitution, in the part which establishes the separation of church and state. Just think - we could be living in something like Saudi Arabia, with its religious police, or in something like medieval Spain under the sort of conditions which produced the Inquisition. I’m grateful to the people who produced our Constitution, but especially that First Amendment.
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JH
Feb 20, 2009 7:14 AM CST
Sorry, L. Your favorite law is a fiction. The notion of separation of church and state comes from Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, not the First Amendment. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That is my favorite law because of the popular misunderstanding regarding it, and the persistent denial of its mandate that the free exercise of religion not be curtailed.
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Tim
Feb 20, 2009 7:16 AM CST
My favorite law is the one that let that 200 pound chimp co-habitate with that idiot in Conn.
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Ed
Feb 20, 2009 8:02 AM CST
The third amendment. It is the only part of the Constitution that still means what it says—without being warped beyond recognition by “judicial gloss.”
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Historyminded
Feb 20, 2009 8:07 AM CST
The Guano Islands Act, Act of Aug. 18, 1856, ch. 164, 11 Stat. 119. What a wonderful name for a law. It was how the U.S. now owns several little Pacific Islands such as Baker, Howland, and Jarvis.
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Kafka Esquire
Feb 20, 2009 9:12 AM CST
People who duel cannot hold public office in West Virginia:
WV Code §6-5-7. Disqualification by duelling.
“Any citizen of this state who shall, either in or out of the state, fight a duel with deadly weapons, or send or accept a challenge so to do, or who shall act as a second, or knowingly aid or assist in such duel, shall ever thereafter be incapable of holding any office of honor, trust or profit in this state.”
I have not yet found a ban in WV for shooting at bubbling crude…
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Kafka Esquire
Feb 20, 2009 9:28 AM CST
Jed in West Virginia was shooting at some food
Hit some Texas Tea; also called the Bubblin’ Crude
If he were in Wyoming, he likely would be screwed,
For fishing with a gun is legally eschewed
—Wyoming Statute 23-3-201(d).
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Robert DiGrazia
Feb 20, 2009 9:38 AM CST
I’m dodging the question, but my favorite law is the Constitution. It’s deliciously anachronistic, ungrammatical, ambiguous, violated, and deranged.
Those guys who wrote it were an odd lot.
What did “respecting an establishment of religion” mean? What did “respecting” mean?
What did “right of the people to keep and bear Arms” mean? Who were “the people”? (Hint: it has to do with crowns.)
In light of what this country is, it is puzzling that its legal root was only about 590 lines of text, none longer than 80 characters, and is only 865 lines today. Compare that to a typical mortgage lien document. No wonder we spend all day fighting over it.
And has there ever been a country established on a foundation that apportions voting and taxes among people “according to the whole Number of free Persons, ... three fifths of all other Persons”? Those guys had to get out more.
Regards, Bob
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Pete Moss
Feb 20, 2009 10:22 AM CST
E=mc2. Energy can be coverted to mass, and mass can be coverted to energy- but neither energy nor mass can be created or destroyed. As a side note, if the Intelligent Design crowd in Dover, PA challenged the Big Bang theory instead of evolution, they might have gotten a different result.
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Andy the Lawyer
Feb 20, 2009 10:29 AM CST
My favorite body of law is California’s Maxims of Jurisprudence, codified at Cal. Civl Code Sec. 3509 et seq. Dating back to 1872, they include sometimes optimistic but often meaningless gems like: “No one should suffer by the act of another” (Sec. 3520) and ” For every wrong there is a remedy” (Sec. 3523).
Of these, my favorites, which should be imprinted on tshirts everywhere, are:“Superfluity does not vitiate” (Sec. 3537) and “The law has been obeyed” (Sec. 3548). Just for fun, try citing the latter in a criminal defense brief.
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Common Sense
Feb 20, 2009 10:35 AM CST
My favorite law is the Law of Common Sense which is becoming more and more obscure by the “you done me wrong” attitude for avoiding personal responsibility and accountability.
The Law of Common Sense is even lacking in our legal profession because few lawyers have the common sense to refuse a client when faced with a ridiculous claim.
I know a lawyer whose parked car was hit a few months ago during a rather bad snow storm. The damage was minimal, the front quarter panel and part of the door and no injuries. The lawyer pushed the other party’s insurer to total out the car claiming the cost of repair was greater than its value even though the damage did not render the car inoperable. After a few months of haggling, the insurer agreed to total out the car. Not good enough for the lawyer though and now wants to go to court. Why? The insurer will only pay the value of the car which is less than the value of the loan balance. The lawyer’s unhappy with the bank because it will not let him off the hook for the loan balance and the insurer will not pay off the loan. Common sense? Most people know the value of a car depreciates faster than the loan value. Common sense? Why should the lawyer care about the repair cost since it costs the lawyer nothing. Here is my take..after this lawyer lost his law firm job this accident was perfect timing because he either could no longer afford to keep the luxury German car or thought it would be a way to get out from the debt. Common sense? This lawyer also knows the laws of this State do not allow punitive damages in accidents like this but the party is to only be made whole. In this case, either the car is repaired or the lawyer gets his wish and a payment for the value of the car and not the value of the car loan. And again, this common sense is from someone who is a member of our profession.
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Kalifornia arnold
Feb 20, 2009 11:08 AM CST
Re-Comment #16—I can only refer you to Samuel Johnson’s “Life Of Boswell” where he observes: “He did not wish to speak ill of any man behind his back but he heard that the gentleman was an attorney.”
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SW
Feb 20, 2009 11:45 AM CST
For some reason, Michigan communities are inordinately fond of local ordinances that make it a misdemeanor to “be annoying” or “act in an annoying manner.”
Keeps New Jersey people out I suppose . . .
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Toby
Feb 20, 2009 11:59 AM CST
Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964, because civil rights is my entire reason for getting involved in the legal field, and I was born in 1964
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Southern Lawyer
Feb 20, 2009 12:09 PM CST
My favorite law would be the 766th (yes, you read that right) Amendment to the Alabama Constitution, which provides that the state legislature may pass a general law to provide for the “production, distribution, improvement, marketing, use, and sale of shrimp and seafood.”
It’s the perfect example of how ridiculous Alabama’s legislative process, as set up by the 1901 Constitution is: that Amendment had to be passed by the Legislature, then by the People on a referendum vote, so that the Legislature could pass laws to promote Alabama Gulf Shrimp (which really are the best).
Along the same lines, my second favorite would be the 688th amendment, which provides, inter alia, that it is illegal in Jefferson County for a bellhop to “carry a note” to or from a guest for the purposes of furthering prostitution.
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John Ciccolella
Feb 20, 2009 12:44 PM CST
My favorite is the “Common Law” particularly as defined by Colorado Law. It reads
C.R.S.A. § 2-4-211, Common law of England
The common law of England so far as the same is applicable and of a general nature, and all acts and statutes of the British parliament, made in aid of or to supply the defects of the common law prior to the fourth year of James the First, excepting the second section of the sixth chapter of forty-third Elizabeth, the eighth chapter of thirteenth Elizabeth, and the ninth chapter of thirty-seventh Henry the Eighth, and which are of a general nature, and not local to that kingdom, shall be the rule of decision, and shall be considered as of full force until repealed by legislative authority.
From a reading of what the common law is in Colorado, I would defy any attorney or judge to back up a statement that “This or That is the common law of this state.” Where do we even find the laws of James the First, Elizabeth the First or Henry the Eighth?
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bob frieberg
Feb 20, 2009 2:13 PM CST
a federal judge whom I know says his favorite is the Federal Sentencing Guidelines!
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Todd
Feb 20, 2009 2:26 PM CST
Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility - Basically an economic law that states the more you consume the less you likely your appetitie for that particular consumption will be less than desirable.
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Hadley V. Baxendale
Feb 20, 2009 2:58 PM CST
The Third Amendment (I wonder if Justice Scalia thinks it’s OK to quarter sailors)
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Jim Kennedy
Feb 20, 2009 3:05 PM CST
The Law of Unitended Consequences. You can’t reseach it, cite it, demonstrate it, amend or modify it yet it applies as equally in law as in every other aspect of human activity - although I believe that operates most frequently in politics than in any other sphere.
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CaliGirl
Feb 20, 2009 3:41 PM CST
The zeroth law of thermodynamics: entropy exists.
I think it’s funny that there’s a “zeroth” law of anything—apparently they came up with it after the first law (entropy increases), but being more basic it ranked higher, so it got to be the zeroth law.
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Pogo Overmeyer
Feb 20, 2009 4:45 PM CST
Res ipsa loquitur has always been my favorite law to rely on for a pinch hit. One day in child support enforcment it was the best legal argument I could remember at the end of a long day. The defendant spent ten minutes arguing he had a vasectomy a few years back and at age 65 was shooting blanks, therefore this could not be his child. The three DNA tests said 99.8% positive it was his child. I simply replied “Res ipsa loquitur. The DNA and the little blue pill, both in his exclusive control.” I thought the judge was going to fall off the bench laughing. He was found to be the father and ordered to pay child support.
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A citizen, a human
Feb 20, 2009 9:59 PM CST
The answer to the question, “what is your favorite law,” for me must be “no law.” I am no anarchist, but that doesn’t mean I like any of the laws that are on the books. (Commenters have addressed structural and procedural “laws,” but these are not really laws so much as they are rules for order and operation.) Each law enacted by Congress and by State and local legislative bodies represents a response to behavior on the part of the governed unacceptable to the collective whole. Are we so base and immature that we need some Great Legislator to draw lines in the sand before us? Are we so passive that we docilely accept the ever-expansive lawmaking of lesser legislators as controls on our lives, controls on which many have come to rely for their basic understanding of good and evil, acceptable and unacceptable?
No, my favorite law is “no law,” because “no law” exists where no law is needed, requested, or prescribed, and this is the world in which I would like to live.
Are we there yet?
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Unlearned Hand
Feb 22, 2009 11:18 AM CST
There is no situation so dire, no problem so deeply rooted and no existing law so unfair that Congress or the state legislature cannot make it worse by acting.
One of my favorites is from Utah, the Sexually Explicit Business and Escort Service Tax aka the “Nudity Tax.” The Utah Supreme Court has followed the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court under the Miller standard, which allows a certain amount of nude dancing as free expression. Such will not deter the “I don’t believe in your free expression” Utah State Legislature. They rejoined with “If you can’t ban it, tax it” and imposed a 10% gross receipt tax on all businesses with any nude employees. Utah Code §59-27-(101-108). It is being challenged in the Utah Supreme Court right now (Bushco v. Tax Comm.) and is overdue for a decision. It must be giving the justices some food for thought. Either that, they are spending some time reviewing the evidence box. This is deserving of an ABA Journal article.
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George Sly
Feb 22, 2009 3:53 PM CST
The United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the companion state act the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. These laws prohibit my wife or daughter from being legally discriminated against because their women or because they’re hispanic (my wife’s family is from Peru). It also prohibits discrimination against my nieces who like the President of United States are of mixed African and European ancestry.
Fifty years ago it would have been legal to treat my wife and daughter and my nieces like dirt. They could have been denied employment, education, etc. on the basis of race. Such discrimination may still happen but it isn’t legal and there is a legal remedy. That is progress.
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Molly O'Brien
Feb 23, 2009 10:14 PM CST
I’ll nominate Alabama’s proposed law to ban the seizure of guns in an emergency. Commenting on the need for the law, one Alabaman noted, “If a hurricane comes, I’m going to need my guns. I might kill a crocodile or one of those snakes or something.” Now there’s a good reason for a legislature to act. And a good reason for me to stay in Australia.
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Deborah Snow
Feb 25, 2009 11:41 AM CST
I am not sure where to find this ” law” but it is the one that give Rangel, Geithner, Daschle and the rest the ability to only pay their back taxes with no penalties or interest.
If some on could tell me where to find this law I would appreciate it.
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