tHelawinSirtHoMaSMore’Sutopia
Senior counsel Section
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Boleyn. More was tried as a traitor,
imprisoned in the Tower of
London, and beheaded in 1535. 1
Written in Latin and published
in 1516, Thomas More’s best
known and most controversial work,
Utopia, is a satire about an idealized
society in an imaginary island in the
New World. In Utopia the people
enjoy a social order based upon
natural reason and justice, and
human fulfillment is open to all. 2
The word “Utopia” means
“No-place,” a place that does not
exist, and perhaps never will.
As an expert in English law,
More was at his best in describing
the laws of Utopia. He explained
that in Utopia they have very few
laws, since in their social system
very few laws are needed. Utopians
say that the only purpose of a law
is to remind people of what they
ought to do. “In their view it is a
violation of justice that people
should be bound by laws which
are either too numerous to read or
too obscure to be understood.” 3
In Utopia, everyone is a legal
expert. Their laws are very few,
“and they regard the most
straightforward reading as the
most equitable.” And the more
subtle “an interpretation is, the less
impact it will have on people, since
only a few will grasp it; while in
contrast, the simpler and more
obvious sense of the law is clear
to everyone.” Thus Utopians “have
no time for professional lawyers
who use artifice to present their
case and craftily raise points of
law,” They think it far better that a
man should plead his own case and
relate to the judge exactly what he
would have said to his own counsel. 4
One cannot help but wonder
what lessons can be found in Utopia
that are applicable for lawyers in the
21st century, even after 500 years. n
1
Thomas More Utopia, Penguin
Classics, translated and edited by
Dominic Baker-Smith (2012)
Introduction
2
Thomas More Utopia, Penguin
Classics, translated and edited by
Dominic Baker-Smith (2012) Back
Cover
3
Ibid. p. 95
4
Ibid. p. 96
Author: Thomas Newcomb Hyde –
Attorney at Law
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