"Laws, like houses, lean on one another"
About this Quote
The line captures a core Burkean conviction: law is an organic system, not a collection of isolated commands. No statute stands entirely on its own. Its force, meaning, and legitimacy come from how it fits with precedent, custom, institutional practice, and the deeper habits of a people. Like terraced houses sharing walls, legal rules bear and distribute weight through their connections; remove or weaken one, and others begin to shift, crack, or fail.
Burke developed this sensibility while defending the English constitution and common law against the revolutionary drive to rebuild society from abstract principles. The French legislators who tried to level the old structure and start anew were, in his view, pulling out supporting walls without understanding how the load was carried. A constitution is a slow workmanship: rights are anchored by procedures, powers are checked by countervailing powers, and old settlements channel new ambitions. The endurance of liberty depends less on the brilliance of any single reform than on the coherence of the whole structure.
The metaphor warns reformers to practice prudence. Change is necessary, but it must be attentive to side effects and to the tacit supports that give rules their life. When a legislature revises a criminal statute, it is also touching policing, evidence, sentencing, prison administration, and public trust. When a court reshapes a doctrine, it is also moving the expectations of citizens and the behavior of officials. Even the separation of powers works by mutual leaning: each branch stabilizes the others by defined dependence.
The counsel is not stasis but craftsmanship. Build additions, repair joints, replace rotten beams, but do not yank out pillars because they look old. Law maintains freedom and order when it grows like a living architecture, each element braced by others, each innovation keyed into the frame that holds the whole.
Burke developed this sensibility while defending the English constitution and common law against the revolutionary drive to rebuild society from abstract principles. The French legislators who tried to level the old structure and start anew were, in his view, pulling out supporting walls without understanding how the load was carried. A constitution is a slow workmanship: rights are anchored by procedures, powers are checked by countervailing powers, and old settlements channel new ambitions. The endurance of liberty depends less on the brilliance of any single reform than on the coherence of the whole structure.
The metaphor warns reformers to practice prudence. Change is necessary, but it must be attentive to side effects and to the tacit supports that give rules their life. When a legislature revises a criminal statute, it is also touching policing, evidence, sentencing, prison administration, and public trust. When a court reshapes a doctrine, it is also moving the expectations of citizens and the behavior of officials. Even the separation of powers works by mutual leaning: each branch stabilizes the others by defined dependence.
The counsel is not stasis but craftsmanship. Build additions, repair joints, replace rotten beams, but do not yank out pillars because they look old. Law maintains freedom and order when it grows like a living architecture, each element braced by others, each innovation keyed into the frame that holds the whole.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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