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As an attorney, I assure you the law isn't a line engraved in marble, immovable and unchangeable through the centuries. Rather: the law is like a string, fixed at both ends but with a great deal of play in it - very loose, the line of the law - so you can stretch it this way or that, rearrange the arc of it so you are nearly always - short of blatant theft or cold-blooded murder - safely on the right side. That's a daunting thing to realize but true.

Dean R. Koontz#6

EthicsJusticeFlexibilityInterpretationLaw

About this quote

What does it mean?
Koontz compares the law to a flexible string rather than a rigid line, noting that interpretation allows people to navigate legal boundaries.
In plain terms
The law is not fixed and strict it can be stretched and interpreted in different ways.
What can you take from it?
Legal rules allow flexibility and interpretation in practice.

Where it applies

  • legal defense
  • policy analysis
  • ethics debates

Putting it to work

  • understanding legal nuance
  • arguing cases

Questions to consider

  • How much flexibility should the law have?
  • Where is the line in legal interpretation?

Another view

This view might encourage seeing the law as too malleable.

More from Dean R. Koontz

  1. Evidently, Ted had walked down the block from his own house and entered with the intention of fixing something. Now Ted was broken, too, and beyond repair.

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  2. : mankind has no right to employ its genius in the creation of another intelligent species, then treat it like property. If we've come so far that we can creat…

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  3. Did you get the leash on him yet, Einstein?

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