Alexander Wood Renton

“ Other maxims deal with rights of property—Qui prior est tempore, potior est jure (Co. Litt. 14 a) , which consecrates the position of the beati possidentes alike in municipal and in international law; Sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas (9 Co. Rep. 59) , which has played its part in the determination of the rights of adjacent owners; and Domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium (5 Co. Rep. 92) —“a man’s house is his castle,” a doctrine which has imposed limitations on the rights of execution creditors (see Execution) . ”

“ Qui facit per alium facile per se, which affirms the principal’s liability for the acts of his agent; Ignorantia juris neminem excusat, on which rests the ordinary citizen’s obligation to know the law; and Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt (2 Co. Inst. 690) , one of the maxims in accordance with which courts of equity administer relief. Among other “maxims of equity” come the rules that “he that seeks equity must do equity,” i.e. ”

“ Nemo debet esse judex in propriâ suâ causâ (12 Co. Rep. 114) —“no man ought to be judge in his own cause”—a maxim which French law, and the legal systems based upon or allied to it, have embodied in an elaborate network of rules for judicial challenge ”