Waterbury, 82 Conn., 567, 571; 74 Atlantic Reporter, 908.]

* * * * *



CHAPTER VI


THE JUDICIAL POWER OF INTERPRETING AND DEVELOPING
WRITTEN LAW


As governments must provide some authority to declare what the
unwritten law governing any transaction was, so they must provide
some authority to declare what the written law governing any
transaction means. Few statements of any rule or principle can
be written out in such a way as to convey exactly the same
impression to every mind. Thought is subtler than its
expression. The meaning of written laws will therefore often be
questioned.

An answer is sometimes attempted by the authority from which the
law proceeded. A king declares what he intended by the terms of
an ambiguous edict. A legislature passes an act to declare the
meaning of a previous one. But meanwhile rights have accrued.
Something has been done in reliance upon a certain construction
of the law. If it was a right construction, then what was done
was lawful, and no subsequent explanation of his intentions by
the lawgiver can change this fact. Laws are addressed to the