3263 TO JOHN BOWRING 6 June 1826 (Aet 78) J. Be to J. Bo.

Three phases of courts’ publicity: reconfiguring Bentham's open justice in the twenty-first century

“…An examination of publicity is deserving of close attention not only due to its fundamental importance to Bentham's writing, but also because the concept has experienced significant shifts in public understanding and usage since the nineteenth century. In the Works of Jeremy Bentham (Bentham, 1843a; 1843b), Bentham examines publicity in the wider political realm (Volume 2) and also the judicial context (Volume 4) 2 . He proposes that the ‘fittest law for securing the public confidence [is] publicity’ and that there is ‘no reason more constant and more universal than the superintendence of the public’ (Bentham, 1843a, p. 310).…”

“…In the Works of Jeremy Bentham (Bentham, 1843a; 1843b), Bentham examines publicity in the wider political realm (Volume 2) and also the judicial context (Volume 4) 2 . He proposes that the ‘fittest law for securing the public confidence [is] publicity’ and that there is ‘no reason more constant and more universal than the superintendence of the public’ (Bentham, 1843a, p. 310). In keeping with this, he argues, procedures should be as simple as possible in order to enable public opinion to act as a ‘direct check’ (Resnik, 2013, p. 83) on authority, including government and courts.…”

Are institutional transplants viable? An examination in light of the proposals by Jeremy Bentham

“…In other words, to the extent that it is possible to devise an efficient system of laws in a utilitarian sense, can we suppose that it will be feasible to further the diffusion of greater happiness through the transfer of this code? This is a point that Bentham addressed in an essay entitled ‘Of the Influence of Time and Place in Matters of Legislation’ (Bentham, 1962), originally published in the Traités de legislation civile et pénale edited in 1802 by Étienne Dumont. According to Bahmueller (1981: 220, footnote 18), this piece was incorrectly titled and edited in Bowring's volumes; thus, a new edition of this text has recently appeared under the title ‘Place and Time’, which, based on manuscripts located in the Bentham papers, ‘more faithfully represents Bentham's own intentions in relation to the structure and detailed presentation of this work’ (Bentham, 2011: 152).…”

“…These should present the ‘particulars relative to the body of laws’ (regarding what is expected in matters of the law), and the ‘circumstances influencing sensibility’ in each country, that is, short accounts, of the moral, religious, sympathetic and antipathetic biases of the people for whose use the alterations are to be made: a set of maps as particular as possible: a table of the productions of the country, natural and artificial: tables of the weights, measures and coins in use: tables of its population, and the like. (Bentham, 1962: 172; 2011: 156–157)…”

‘Economic property rights’ as ‘nonsense upon stilts’: a comment on Hodgson

“…My second goal is to soften an apparent (if unintended) implication from several of Hodgson's (2015) arguments, that a legal system requires a state 2 . As Hodgson undoubtedly appreciates, one need not share Bentham's belief, articulated in Principles of the Civil Code [1843], that the law and the state are born and die together (see Bentham 1962, Vol. 1: 309) in order to conclude that the notion of ‘economic property rights’ is, as Bentham derisively wrote of ‘natural and imprescriptible rights’ in France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, ‘nonsense upon stilts’ (see Bentham 1962, Vol 2: 501) 3…”