And not in the material punishment for its violation is the fundamental, invincible sanction of the law, but in the conscience of men, rebuking his iniquity. Material punishment he may flee, the imperfection of human justice may cast it on the innocent, but from this internal chastisement he can in no way be delivered.
This deep significance of the law is entirely overlooked in the new theories and new practices of legislators. For them the law has but one significance, as the regulation of external action, the preserver of mechanical equilibrium of the diverse operations of human activity in their juridical relations. In the preparation of the law great labour is expended on analysis and technicality. The importance of technicality and analysis cannot be gainsaid; but is it wise in providing for these to forget the essential significance of the law? Yet this significance is often not only forgotten, but actually abjured.
Thus we encumber beyond measure the immense edifice of the law, and live incessantly devising rules and forms and formulas of every kind. In the name of freedom and the rights of men we do this, yet we have gone so far that no man can move in freedom from the network of rules and ordinances extending everywhere, threatening everyone — all in the name of freedom.
— Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev, Reflections of a Russian Statesman. trans. Robert Crozier Long (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1973), 85-6.
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