MAXIMS, LEGAL. A maxim is an established principle or proposition. The Latin term _maxima_ is not to be found in Roman law with any meaning exactly analogous to that of a legal maxim in the modern sense of the word, but the treatises of many of the Roman jurists on _Regulae definitiones_, and _Sententiae juris_ are, in some measure, collections of maxims (see an article on "Latin Maxims in English Law" in _Law Mag. and Rev._ xx. 285); Fortescue (_De laudibus_, c. 8) and Du Cange treat _maxima_ and _regula_ as identical. The attitude of early English commentators towards the maxims of the law was one of unmingled adulation. In _Doctor and Student_ (p. 26) they are described as "of the same strength and effect in the law as statutes be." Coke (Co. _Litt._ 11 A) says that a maxim is so called "Quia maxima est ejus dignitas et certissima auctoritas, atque quod maxime omnibus probetur." "Not only," observes Bacon in the Preface to his _Collection of Maxims_, "will the use of maxims be in deciding doubt and helping soundness of judgment, but, further, in gracing argument, in correcting unprofitable subtlety, and reducing the same to a more sound and substantial sense of law, in reclaiming vulgar errors, and, generally, in the amendment in some measure of the very nature and complexion of the whole law." A similar note was sounded in Scotland; and it has been well observed that "a glance at the pages of Morrison's _Dictionary_ or at other early reports will show how frequently in the older Scots law questions respecting the rights, remedies and liabilities of individuals were determined by an immediate reference to legal maxims" (J. M. Irving, _Encyclo. Scots Law_, s.v. "Maxims"). In later times less value has been attached to the maxims of the law, as the development of civilization and the increasing complexity of business relations have shown the necessity of qualifying the propositions which they enunciate (see Stephen, _Hist. Crim. Law_, ii. 94 _n: Yarmouth_ v. _France_, 1887, 19 Q.B.D., per Lord Esher, at p. 653, and American authorities collected in Bouvier's _Law Dict._ s.v. "Maxim"). But both historically and practically they must always possess interest and value. A brief reference need only be made here, with examples by way of illustration, to the field which the maxims of the law cover.