LEGISLATO

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  LEGISLATOR. One who makes laws.
       2. In order to make good laws, it is necessary to understand those 
  which are in force; the legislator ought therefore, to be thoroughly imbued 
  with a knowledge of the laws of his country, their advantages and defects; 
  to legislate without this previous knowledge is to attempt to make a 
  beautiful piece of machinery with one's eye shut. There is unfortunately too 


  strong a propensity to multiply our laws and to change them. Laws must be 
  yearly made, for the legislatures meet yearly but whether they are always 
  for the better may be well questioned. A mutable legislation is always 
  attended with evil. It renders the law uncertain, weakens its effects, hurts 
  credit, lessens the value of property, and as they are made frequently, in 
  consequence of some extraordinary case, laws sometimes operate very 
  unequally. Vide 1 Kent, Com. 227 and Le Magazin Universel, tome ii. p. 227, 
  for a good article against excessive legislation; Matter, De l'Influence des 
  Lois sur les Moeurs, et de l'Influence des Moeurs sur les Lois.