THE CASE FOR LESS LEGALESE

HE turn of the 18th century was a time of optimism and complacency in England.

- SAAI SUDHARSAN SATHIYAMOORTHY

The constitutional settlement of 1689, which had established the requirement for the crown to seek parliament's consent, largely ensured the preservation of the ruling classes' interests, leading Roland K Wilson to later claim that the period did not see a single statute that honestly intended to promote the public's well-being.

The common law was also in an almost fossilised state. Extremely complicated rules of procedure, and asinine and obsolete rules of evidence were present, delaying resolution of disputes while making justice costly for the common man.

It was around this time that a young, precocious Jeremy Bentham attended a lecture of the venerable William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England are still a mainstay in legal education. Bentham, however, instantly spurned Blackstone and his ecstatic adulation for the English legal system. For Bentham, the near obsolete features of 18th-century English law and its lack of interest in systematic codification of statutes were as much a consequence of the reactionary attitude of those in power as it were a result of the preference of lawyers and lawmakers to benefit financially. In his view, the law should not be an esoteric realm, navigable only by the initiated, but a transparent guide for society, illuminating the path to righteousness with the light of wisdom.