Yesterday I bought a law textbook and I am happy to report, the book is as thick as a brick. Owing to the steep price tag usually attached to law books (because they are as thick as a brick most of the time), I tend to hover around law libraries most of the time in search for law books on specialized topics and to read and browse law books and law journals to my heart’s content. (Long live libraries!)
As such, the purchase of a brick-thick law book is often an epochal event for me as they often mark the crossing of a threshold for me, another hill conquered, another river crossed. Something like that.
The first law book I bought was when I decided to jump in head first into trial related briefs. This new one I bought yesterday reaffirmed my commitment to the art and science of conducting trials. Now I am comfortable enough to proclaim myself to be a journeyman in conducting trials.
The book I bought yesterday was written sometime before the fall of Berlin Wall, at around the time shoulder pads were making a comeback in women's fashion. It is because of that and the yellowing tone of the tome and not because of my haggling skills, I got a nice discount for it.
The book however was on the list of books a trial practitioner should have according to a senior practitioner. In fact, most of the books on the list are just that. Old and yellowing, seemingly decades out of date but nevertheless evergreen in its content.
There are more recent editions, sure but one thing I am coming realize about the Law so far is that though judicial opinions differs from time to time and over myriad of issues, at the heart of it the Law is about achieving fair and just outcome for the parties involved deriving from our own inane sense of right and wrong but in legalese; the "why" part of the Law. Because of that, the fundamentals of the Law rarely changes.
It is the "how" part, the part where we apply the Law that tends to differ from time to time as it is a matter of interpretation by the court. Judicial opinion, a judge's say so: a judgment. What was a good interpretation of the law 10 years ago could be overruled in tomorrow hence the many editions of a same book.
But even then, once in a while in comes a judgment so profound in its truth, so elegantly wrought that both judges and lawyers alike could not help but to agree with the said judgment thereby setting a long list of application throughout the years, just like that snail in a bottle case. Damned if I can remember the name right now. I am after all typing is up at some ungodly hour of the night.
In legal research references to online legal database maybe the end stage but the start off point is always to hit the books no matter how old and yellowing it may be. Besides, where enlightment is the goal the fun is in the hunt for the relevant case, the joy is in the research. Cracking open and consulting an old yellowing tome always gave me that magical, wizardly feel. You can't get the same rush from staring at a screen and there is something about reading, underlining and highlighting an actual book that help things to stick better and longer in my mind. Some psycho-somatic thingy perhaps. But that is me, I might be the weirdo who enjoy all these digging and communing with the dead (and not so dead, aka the act of reading).
In any event, a law book is a lawyer's stave, our parang, our multitool without which we would be severely ill-equipped to perform our duties to our utmost abilities in service of the Law. Besides, if all else fails the heft of one is good enough in defence of our person (chuck it, swing it with both hands and let the full weight of the Law prevailover your assailant) Perhaps some DPP with very liberal interpretation of offensive weapon might classify it as one under Act 356 but the same can be said for a small jar of Sambal Berapi Nyet (hurt to your..exit that is) but in the end of course the Court interpretation will hold sway.
Anyway,
This long age will roll on, governments change, the Sea level may rise, humanity might sprout another set of limbs but books are here to stay like it has for thousand of years. Physical books that is. Them duo thingy don't work so well with me.
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