18th February, 2009 - Ten Things I Love About the Law #6

I like law libraries. I like the old books, neatly stacked in rows. They seem to me to be bursting with stories. If you sit still enough, you can almost hear the disputes begging to be released from the pages. All the vexatious litigants; all the people who wouldn’t let go; all the people who had a point to prove – they’re all there within the pages – all their arguments set out there in black and white for centuries to come.

Yes, they are all there now neatly marshalled into chronological volumes, like tamed lions in a cage at the circus. All that passion, all that fight, all that money spent, and now the dispute covers a dozen pages in a dusty volume.