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[2]
But
it is clear to everybody that one law cannot contradict
another in principle (since if there were two different
principles, one law would cancel the other), and
that the laws in question are brought into collision
purely by the accidents of chance.
When two laws clash, they may be of a similar
nature, as for instance if we have to compare two
cases in which a tyrannicide and a brave man are
given the choice of their reward, both being granted
the privilege of choosing whatever they desire. In
such a case we compare the deserts of the claimants,
the occasions of the respective acts and the nature
of the rewards claimed.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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