Appendix A: Glossary: The Vocabulary of a Law
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
ACME: Perched atop the acme of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®, a lawmaker looks down to the bottom of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW® to scrutinize a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances at its base, forms an opinion about whether she is for it, is neutral towards it or is against it, issues a command to turn off the flow, a permission for the flow to be on or off or a command to turn on the flow and binds the command or permission to both a weight and a standing token holder.
APPLICATION: As an individual law is akin to an application (i.e. a computer program), so the Unified Theory of a Law is equivalent to a computer's operating system.
ASPECT: A law can be initially divided into a factual and a legal aspect. This division begins our analysis of a law.
AUTONOMY: A lawmaker can attempt to substitute its opinion for the opinion of a source of conduct by the issuance of a command and by simulataneously binding a duty to a source of conduct. In the alternative, a lawmaker can make a source autonomous. A lawmaker can issue a permission and bind a privilege to a source. Autonomy exists when the decision about engaging in a course of conduct or not belongs to a source of conduct not to a lawmaker.
B
BASE: At the base of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®, is a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. The source is at one corner and the recipient at the other corner. The base of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW® is the factual aspect of a law.
BENEFIT: A law be it either a command or a permission can be said to create a legal benefit and burden. Legal benefits and burdens are different than and do not necessarily correspond with the factual benefits and burdens of a law. The legal benefit of a command is a right and the legal burden is a duty. The legal benefit of a permission is a privilege and the legal burden a no-right. The benefit and burden terminology is descriptive at times and in a sense because as conduct flows or does not flow gains and losses are created or not created. As conduct flows, the recipient of the flow of conduct, the right token holder, gains i.e. benefits while the issuer of the flow of conduct, the duty token holder, loses, i.e. is burdened. As conduct does not flow, the lack of a loss to the privilege token holder, can be called a benefit and the lack of a gain to the no-right token holder, i.e. a burden.
BINARY: Conduct is either flowing or not flowing. It is either on or off. The word, 'not', turns off conduct that was on. This property of a flow of conduct is called polarity. Polarity refers to the two mutually exclusive binary states of a flow of conduct. Positive conduct is conduct that is on. Negative conduct is conduct that is off. There is no difference between positive conduct and negative conduct other than its polarity.
BINDING: Binding is what a lawmaker does when he imposes weight upon or withholds weight from a weight token holder and when he bestows standing to or withholds standing from a standing token holder. Binding is accomplished when a lawmaker distributes any of the four legal tokens, i.e., duty, privilege, right or no-right. A command is bound to a weight token holder with a duty and to a standing token holder with a right. A permission is bound to a weight token holder with a privilege and a standing token holder with a no-right.
BOSCO, JOHN: John Bosco is an attorney licensed to practice law in the States of New York and New Jersey and is a partner in Bosco, Bisignano & Mascolo, Esqs. LLP where he helps plaintiffs against whom the scales of justice have been tilted by the negligent infliction of personal injury.
Our society has achieved a modus vivendi by which we co-exist. Plaintiffs have renounced in-kind retaliation - an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth. In exchange for the forbearance of plaintiffs, society has substituted compensation - the cash equivalent of the eye, tooth or other personal injury - as the means to bring the scales of justice back into balance. The cruelty of in kind retaliation has been purged from our system of justice in favor of a gentler system of compensation.
Bosco goes after defendants on behalf of plaintiffs to make sure that the balance between plaintiffs and defendants is restored. Liability insurance companies do not really care whether the scales of justice are brought back to balance. They want to pay as little as possible. Bosco makes sure liability insurance companies pay the full debt created by the negligent infliction of personal injury. Bosco has tried many cases before juries in various areas of law from Delaware to New York. He is a graduate of Monsignor Farrell H.S. on Staten Island, New York, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and Brooklyn Law School.
BURDEN: A law be it either a command or a permission can be said to create a legal benefit and burden. Legal benefits and burdens are different than and do not necessarily correspond with the factual benefits and burdens of a law. The legal benefit of a command is a right and the legal burden is a duty. The legal benefit of a permission is a privilege and the legal burden a no-right. The benefit and burden terminology is descriptive at times and in a sense because as conduct flows or does not flow gains and losses are created or not created. As conduct flows, the recipient of the flow of conduct, the right token holder, gains i.e. benefits while the issuer of the flow of conduct, the duty token holder, loses, i.e. is burdened. As conduct does not flow, the lack of a loss to the privilege token holder, can be called a benefit and the lack of a gain to the no-right token holder, i.e. a burden.
C
CHARACTERS OF A LAW: A Unified Theory of a Law involves three characters: In addition to the three characters is a pseudo-character known as neither a lawmaker, source or recipient. This pseudo-character is important with regard to extrapolation. There is a factual relationship that links a source with a recipient; there is a legal relationship that links a source with a lawmaker; and there is a legal relationship that links a recipient with a lawmaker.
CIRCUMSTANCES: Circumstances are the facts that surround a flow of conduct from source to recipient. They are the context in which conduct flows.
COMMAND: A command is one of the flavors of a law. There are only two. The other is a permission. The existence of a command indicates a lawmaker has a like or a dislike towards a flow of conduct and desires to turn it on or off. A command is in the imperative mood. The helping verb, "shall", is a clue to a command. Both weight and standing are present with a command. A lawmaker binds a command to a weight token holder with a duty and to a standing token holder with a right.
COMMAND FOR NEGATIVE CONDUCT: A command for negative command is issued by a lawmaker who desires that a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances be turned off. Other than its polarity, it is identical to a command for positive conduct.
COMMAND FOR POSITIVE CONDUCT: A command for positive command is issued by a lawmaker who desires that a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances be turned on. Other than its polarity, it is identical to a command for negative conduct.
COMMANDMENTS OF UNDERSTANDING: The first Commandment of Understanding is that the finite is easier to understand than the infinite. The infinite flabbergasts the mind blocking it from wrapping itself around the infinite. Therefore, the trick to understanding an infinite group of ideas is to make it finite. How? Simply number them and name them. You can more easily understand 4, 10 even 300 rather than an unnamed quantity. If you can number them, you can understand them. The second commandment of understanding is that the constant is easier to understand than the variable. Therefore, the trick to understanding the variable is to associate it with a constant.
CONDUCT: Conduct is what leaves a source and flows to a recipient. It has two noteworthy properties: direction and polarity. Conduct that arrives at a recipient is known as a consequence. It is the subject of a law.
COMPONENTS: A lawmaker engages in three activities in the process of making a law as she views a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. These are the three components of lawmaking. Note that these are different than the three permutations of a law. The permutations are the three horizontal rows of the Periodic Table of the Elements of a Law. The three permutations arise from the three opinions that a lawmaker can hold. The three components of lawmaking are depicted by the vertical columns. They arise differently, i.e. from the three activities of a lawmaker in the process of lawmaking. They are: - the issuance of a law
- the binding of it to a source with weight
- the binding of it to a recipient with standing.
A lawmaker with a basic perspective focuses upon the issuance of a law and does not differentiate the source and recipient out from it. A lawmaker with an advanced perspective differentiates both the source and recipient from the issuance of a law.
CONSTANT - VARIABLE - VALUES THOUGHT STRUCTURE: A constant - variable - values triplet is an example of a 'thought structure'. There are quite a few others. A 'thought structure' is a useful mnemonic by which we can organize our thinking about some aspect of the world. With this 'thought structure', we organize the world into a constant - variable - values triplet. It is relevant to our doctrine because each part of a law can be viewed as assuming the shape of a constant - variable - values triplet. The correct array of constant - variable - values triplets defines the structure of a law. Moreover, legislation and interpretation - what lawmakers and judges do - can be thought of as the same process but going in different directions. Lawmakers travel from the general constant to the particular value. Judges travel in the other direction from the particular value to the general constant.
CONSEQUENCE: A Consequence is conduct that has arrived at a recipient.
CONTEXT: A flow of conduct from a source to recipient does not take place in a vacuum but in a context. The context is the circumstances. What goldfish are to a flow of conduct from a source to recipient, the tank of water in which the goldfish reside is to the context.
CORE: Autopsies done with an intellectual scalpel to the bodies of a large number of laws sampled from a variety of legal fields have revealed that each law has a small number of the same legal ideas that can be thought of as the 'core' or 'genetic code' of a law. These experiments can be repeated in accordance with the scientific method and, hence, can be independently verified. Each of the legal ideas in this 'core' has been counted and named and organized together into a harmonious community called A Unified Theory of a Law.
D
DESPISE: Without the negative connotation, a lawmaker perched upon the acme of the Triangle of Law despises, that is, looks down, upon a flow of conduct from a source to recipient in circumstances at its base. What is seen constitutes the factual aspect of a law.
DIFFERENTIATE: A lawmaker perched upon the acme of the Triangle of Law engages in three activities as she look down upon a flow of conduct from a source to recipient in circumstances at its base, Often, these three activities are not differentiated. They are confused together. This is a source of misunderstanding. We call this error the monolithic error. A legal thinker has made the monolithic error when he or she fails to differentiate the process of lawmaking into its three components.
DIRECTION: Direction is a property of a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. Its other significant property is polarity It pertains to whether a flow is headed toward or away from a source. A flow of conduct is mono-directional. It always flows from a source to a recipient.
DUTY: With the issuance of a command, two legal tokens come into being one of which is a 'duty'. (The other is a 'right') In the process of lawmaking, a lawmaker takes the 'duty' and binds it to a source of conduct. A 'duty' simply means that weight is present. (The word, privilege' indicates that weight is absent) Weight is the tool a lawmaker uses to intrude on a source's decision making process in an attempt to substitute the lawmaker's opinion for the source's opinion about a flow of conduct.
E
EVALUATION: Evaluation occurs after the three permutations of a law for a particular flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances are articulated. Evaluation refers to the process of picking one of the three permutations of a law and the reasons for doing so. The nature of the process of Evaluation is beyond the scope of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®.
EVEN THOUGH CLAUSE: The 'even though clause' is one of the three clauses of a Three Clause Sentence. It holds those facts that do not make a difference to the operation of the main clause. The facts in an even though clause are irrelevant.
EXTRAPOLATION: Extrapolation occurs when a lawmaker binds a law to someone other than a source or recipient. A lawmaker is extrapolating when she hands a right, no-right, duty or privilege to someone other than a source or a recipient.
F
FACT: The facts consist of a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. The facts occupy the base of the Triangle of Law.
FACTUAL ASPECT OF A LAW: A law can initially be divided into two aspects, one of which is its factual aspect and the other is its legal aspect. The factual aspect of a law consists of a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. It occupies the base of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®.
FLAVORS OF LAW: There are two flavors of law: a command and a permission. Unlike ice cream that has more flavors than vanilla and chocolate, a law has only two.
FLOW: Flow is the stream of conduct / consequences whose origin is a source and whose destination is a recipient. It is unidirectional always going from source to recipient. it has polarity, meaning it is either on or off, positive or negative.
FOCUS: In every law there is a factual focus and a legal focus. The factual focus does not shift. Factually, a lawmaker always focuses upon a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. The legal focus, however, can shift. The legal focus can shine the spotlight upon a source, a lawmaker and a recipient. The legal focus corresponds to the three activities in which a lawmaker engages in the process of making a law.
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GENETIC CODE: Autopsies done with an intellectual scalpel to the bodies of a large number of laws sampled from a variety of legal fields have revealed that each law has a small number of the same legal ideas that can be thought of as the 'core' or 'genetic code' of a law. These experiments can be repeated in accordance with the scientific method and, hence, can be independently verified. Each of the legal ideas in this 'core' has been counted and named and organized together into a harmonious community called A Unified Theory of a Law.
H
HELPING VERB: A helping verb such as 'shall' or 'may' is the clue that indicates a command (i.e. the imperative mood) or permission (i.e. the permissive mood). 'Shall' gives away a command. 'May' signals a permission. Discard other helping verbs such as ‘can’ and ‘must’.
HOHFELD: As a first year law student at Brooklyn Law School, I was sitting befuddled in the stacks of the library, when God nudged me to reach up and grab a dust encrusted book. It was written by Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld. Its title was Fundamental Legal Conceptions as applied in Judicial Reasoning and was published by Greenwod Press, Westport Connecticut. It was dense but I read it and couldn't put it down. It made sense. It dispelled in my mind the heresy that a law consists solely of words. It opened my eyes to an underlying legal structure. I, therefore, dedicate this website to him.
I
IF CLAUSE: The 'if clause' is one of the three parts of a Three Part Sentence that holds those circumstances that individually are necessary and together sufficient to trigger the main clause.
ISSUANCE OF A LAW: A lawmaker in the process of making a law does three things: A lawmaker issues a command for positive conduct, a permission for positive or negative conduct or a command for negative conduct.
L
A LAW: A Law is either a command or permission. Unlike ice cream that has more than two flavors, a law has only two. Why? Because a law is merely a reflection of either of two moods of a lawmaker: the imperative and the permissive. There is a command for positive conduct, a permission for either positive or negative conduct or a command for negative conduct.
LAWMAKER: A Lawmaker, perched at the acme of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®, looks down upon a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances at its base, forms an opinion about whether she is for it, is neutral towards it or is against it. Arising from her opinion is a desire toward the polarity of the flow of conduct. To achieve the desired polarity, she issues either a command or a permission. Simultaneously, she binds the command or permission to both a weight and a standing token holder.
LEGAL ASPECT OF A LAW: A law can initially be divided into two aspects, one of which is its legal aspect and the other is its factual aspect. The legal aspect of a law deals with the issuance of a command for positive conduct, a permission for either positive or negative conduct, or a command for negative conduct as well as the binding of the law to a weight token holder and standing token holder through the distribution of a right, no-right, duty or privilege.
LEGALESE: Legalese is any legal expression that does not conform to the protocols specified in A Unified Theory of a Law
LOOPHOLE: A loophole is a circumstance that, with respect to the same flow of conduct, changes a command into a permission.
M
MAIN CLAUSE: The 'main clause' is one of the three parts of a Three Part Sentence that holds the law. In it can be placed one of the four tokens - right, no-right, duty or privilege.
MAY: May is a helping verb . It is the clue that indicates a permission and reveals that the issuer of the permission is using the permissive mood.
MEANING THAT IS STRUCTURED: Meaning is structured when it is conveyed by a harmonious community of constant - variable pairs. Examples of such devices are scoreboards, traffic lights, forms, and of course, our laws. Because the structure is immutable, we can become intimately familiar with it and, hence, understanding becomes instantaneous and transportable.
MEANING THAT IS UNSTRUCTURED: Unstructured meaning is undisciplined. It is not organized. Each instance of it is sui generis. There is no uniformity. When the meaning of a law is unstructured, it must first be translated according to a law’s structure before it can be understood.
MONO-DIRECTIONAL: The flow of conduct always goes in one direction from source to recipient.
MONOLITHIC: A lawmaker can look upon a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances and focus, in turn, upon - the issuance of a law
- binding a law to a source
- binding a law to a recipient
When the process of lawmaking is not differentiated into these three components, it is said that the legal thinker has made the monolithic error. The monolithic error is a source of misunderstanding. See also, component
MOOD: Mood describes an aspect of the world as seen through the eyes of grammarians. A speaker, a source of information, can have beliefs and desires towards information. Moods describe a speaker's attitude toward the information the speaker is uttering. There are four moods: - indicative,
- subjunctive,
- permissive and
- imperative.
Use of the imperative mood indicates the speaker desires information to be true or false. Use of the permissive mood indicates the speaker does not care about the truth or falsity of information. Use of the indicative mood indicates the speaker believes information to be true or false. Use of the subjunctive mood indicates that the speaker is assuming the information to be true or false.
In some languages, the form of the words change to indicate different moods. The presence of the word 'shall' is a clue to the use of the imperative mood and 'may' a clue to the permissive mood.
N
NAME AND NUMBER: "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And, as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream" (5.1.7-12). Shakespeare knew how to turn 'airy nothing' into things meaningful by the simple process of naming and numbering them. A Unified Theory of a Law simply names and numbers the parts of a law that constitute the 'core' or 'genetic code' of a law.
NEGATIVE CONDUCT: Conduct is made negative by use of the word 'not'. Negative conduct is conduct whose flow has been turned off. The only difference between negative and positive conduct is its polarity. Negative conduct does not mean that conduct is bad or in any way inferior to positive conduct just that its flow is off.
NO-RIGHT: There are four legal tokens, two of which pertain to weight and two of which pertain to standing. The four are used depending on whether weight and standing are present or absent. The word 'no-right' simply means that standing is absent. A lawmaker withholds standing from a recipient of conduct ( a standing token holder) thereby refusing to recognize his or her interest in a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. A no-right indicates that a lawmaker has bound a permission to a standing token holder instead of a command. With the issuance of a permission, two legal tokens come into being, one of which is a 'no-right' and the other is a 'privilege'. They are two sides of the same coin called a permission. The issuance of a permission indicates that a lawmaker does not intrude on a source's decision making process in an attempt to substitute the lawmaker's opinion for the source's opinion about a flow of conduct. With a permission, a lawmaker gives a source freedom of choice with regard to a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. Hence, instead of being at the mercy of a lawmaker, with a permission, a recipient is at the mercy of a source.
NOT: The word 'not' turns conduct off. It reverses the polarity of conduct. It belongs to the factual not the legal. Although it often appears with 'shall' and 'may', it does not refer to them but to the conduct that they introduce. However, it is sometimes used colloquially to also indicate the absence of permission. We do not use it colloquially.
O
OPERATING SYSTEM : A Unified Theory of a Law is equivalent to a computer's operating system. Individual laws are applications that run under it.
OPINIONS OF A LAWMAKER: A lawmaker can form any of three opinions about a flow of conduct. These are the same three opinions that we form about things. They define the ends and middle of a spectrum of opinions. A lawmaker can like a flow of conduct and, hence, desires its positive polarity and, hence, expresses a command for positive conduct. A lawmaker can dislike a flow and, hence, desires its negative polarity and, hence, expresses a command for negative conduct. A lawmaker can be indifferent to a flow of conduct and, hence, lack both a desire for its positive polarity and a desire for its negative polarity. Either polarity is fine with the indifferent lawmaker. An indifferent lawmaker expresses a permiession for either polarity of conduct
P
THE PARENT OF A LAW: There is no law that is not sprung from the loins of a lawmaker's imperative or permissive moods.
THE PARTS OF A LAW: Take a variety of laws from any legal field, line them up on an autopsy table, roll up your sleeves, cut them open with your intellectual scalpel, and eye ball their anatomy. Your eyes will see the same handful of legal thoughts in each of them. In other words, hidden beneath the words of each law is a 'core' or 'genetic code'. The words of a law change from law to law; yet, a handful of legal thoughts stays the same. Take one thought from this handful and it is the equivalent of a part of a law. Assemble the parts together and, voilà, they form the structure of a law. The structure of a law cooperates with the words of a law to generate a law's meaning. To see how the parts of law organize themselves into a harmonious community of interrelated legal ideas, Click Here.
THE PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS OF A LAW®: The Periodic Table of the Elements of a Law® sets forth in the figure of a Triangle and in a table of three rows and seven columns all of the elements of a law. Its first and third rows deal with a command. Its middle row deals with a permission. Knowing what occupies one location in the Periodic Table indicates what exists at its other locations.
PERMISSION: A permission is one of the flavors of a law. There are only two. The other is a command. The existence of a permission indicates a lawmaker is indifferent to both the positive and the negative versions of the conduct and utterly lacks any desire with regard to either. To flow or not to flow, the lawmaker does not care. A permission is in the permissive mood. The helping verb, "may", is a clue to a permission. Both weight and standing are absent with a permission. A lawmaker binds a permission to a weight token holder with a privilege and to a standing token holder with a no-right.
PERMUTATIONS OF A LAW: A law can assume any of three permutations: - a Row A Permutation: a command for positive not negative conduct (See Row A of the Periodic Table of a Law®),
- a Row B Permutation: a permission for either positive or negative conduct (See Row B Periodic Table of a Law®), or
- a Row C Permutation: a command for negative not positive conduct (See Row C Periodic Table of a Law®).
These are the three permutations of a law with respect to any particular flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. There is not a fourth permutation. There are only three.
PERSPECTIVE OF A LAWMAKER: A lawmaker's perspective can be basic or advanced. A lawmaker who views a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances monolithically is said to have a basic perspective. A lawmaker who differentiates a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances is said to have an advanced perspective. When a lawmaker differentiates a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances, a lawmaker seperates
POLARITY: Polarity is that property of flow of conduct that indicates whether the flow is on or off. There are two polarities. When on, a flow of conduct is said to be positive or have a positive polarity. When off, a flow of conduct is said to be negative or have a negative polarity. Positive conduct is the same as negative conduct except that positive conduct is flowing and negative conduct is not.
POSITIVE CONDUCT: Positive Conduct means that a flow of conduct has been turned on. The only difference between negative and positive conduct is its polarity. it does not mean that the conduct is good or in any way better than negative conduct.
PRIVILEGE: There are four legal tokens, two of which pertain to weight and two of which pertain to standing. The four are used depending on whether weight and standing are present or absent. The word 'privilege' simply means that weight is absent. A lawmaker withholds a lawmaker's weight from a source of conduct ( weight token holder) thereby allowing either polarity of conduct. A privilege indicates that a lawmaker has bound a permission to a weight token holder instead of a command.
R
RECIPIENT: A recipient is the destination of a flow of conduct. Conduct flows to a recipient. A recipient is graphically depicted in a corner of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®. The conduct that reaches a recipient is called consequences.
RELATIONSHIP: There are four significant relationships that exist linking a lawmaker, source and recipient. Three of the relationships are legal; one is factual. Between a source and a recipient is the factual relationship. It involves a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. The three legal relationships correspond to the three components of a lawmaker's decision about which permutation of a law to apply to the particular flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. Although the factual focus is always upon a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances, the legal focus shifts and can appear on a source, on a recipient or on the lawmaker. Hence, there is a legal relationship between a lawmaker and a source. It involves binding a law to a source with weight. The relationship can be called weight for short. There is a legal relationship between a lawmaker and a recipient. It involves binding a law to a recipient with standing. The relationship can be called standing for short. There is a legal realtionship between a lawmaker and a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. It involves the lawmaker's forming an opinion, desiring a polarity and expressing a law. The relationship can be called issuing a law for short.
RIGHT: There are four legal tokens, two of which pertain to weight and two of which pertain to standing. The four are used depending on whether weight and standing are present or absent. The word 'right' simply means that standing is present. A lawmaker bestows standing to a recipient of conduct ( standing token holder) thereby recognizing his or her interest in a flow of conduct from source to recipient in circumstances. A right indicates that a lawmaker has bound a command to a standing token holder instead of a permission.
S
SCEPTER OF JUSTICE: The scepter of justice is wielded by a lawmaker at the top of THE TRIANGLE OF LAW®. At one end of the scepter is an eye representing standing and at the other is a hand representing weight. By opening the eye, a lawmaker confers standing. By closing it, a lawmaker withholds standing. By closing the hand into a fist, a lawmaker confers weight. By opening the fist, a lawmaker withholds weight. The scepter of justice is pointed at a particular citizen to show whether he has or lacks weight or standing.