Jeremy Bentham

Bentham's charge against English law, as the essay presents it, was not that it was wrong but that it was unknowable: law citizens discover only by being punished under it, which he called dog law. His remedy was a complete written restatement, and because no word existed for the activity he coined one, codification.

In 1811 he wrote to President Madison offering to perform that restatement for the United States. Madison declined.

The essay parts company with him on the common law, which Bentham wanted abolished outright and the essay defends as an emergent system worth keeping.

The dog law passage was traced to Truth versus Ashhurst, written in December 1792. He is depicted in the Pickersgill portrait.