The Law of Citations

The law the essay builds its "governing by seance" section on. Faced with centuries of accumulated and contradictory juristic opinion, the imperial government named five authorities, Papinian, Paulus, Ulpian, Modestinus and Gaius, and instructed judges to resolve conflicts by counting votes among them, with Papinian prevailing in a tie.

The essay's use of it is as evidence that a legal system can outgrow the working memory of the institutions running it, and that the response can be procedural rather than substantive.