… is from page 556 of volume 1 of Harold Berman’s penetrating and important history of the western legal tradition, his 1983 Law and Revolution:
Law, then, is custom transformed, and not merely the will or reason of the lawmaker. Law spreads upward from the bottom and not only downward from the top.
This fact is why I react the same as I do to hearing fingernails scratching hard on a chalkboard whenever I hear legislators referred to as “lawmakers.” “Legislation-makers” would be fine and accurate – but “lawmakers” not so much so.
