Although this blog strives to maintain a certain level of professionalism, it must be noted that a law blog like this one can hardly exist without mentioning one of comedy’s greatest inventions: Bob Loblaw Law Blog.

In the third and final season of the mildly successful FOX comedy, Arrested Development, Bob Loblaw is introduced. While Loblaw is a lawyer who takes himself seriously, viewers can’t help but chuckle at his non-self-aware quirkiness.

In Loblaw’s commercial,

• He repeatedly closes a large, leather book, supposedly a legal dictionary.
• He only accepts cash for identity theft cases.
• “Why should you go to jail for a crime someone else…noticed?” he asks.
• The cheesy stock-music in the background is supposedly meant to suggest that the know-it-all lawyer is an inept person.

Watch the Bob Loblaw Commercial.

It’s the day after Christmas, and as I’m writing this post for our legal blog, I can’t help but realize that what Loblaw said to his friends, is the same thing I said to mine: “I thought that maybe I would stay in and work on my law blog.”

Here’s to a great 2012 for AttorneysOnYourSide.com!

Many legal scholars and lawyers think that old laws are archaic laws.

For example, some argue that states that still have 55 mph speed limits on the interstate are living in the late 1950s, a time when President Dwight Eisenhower began creating what we now know as the interstate system.

In small towns especially, some legislatures just don’t repeal laws. For example, a law in Texas mandates that criminals give their victims oral or written notice 24 hours in advance of the crime they are planning to commit.

However, ancient law is often extremely important to society, for it has stood the test of time. If, throughout centuries of application, it survives, it is quite possible that it is because it is good law.

Ancient law is also a necessary part of law, for it is its foundation. In every case except for revolution, law is built upon precedent. Understanding the earliest law, then, can help one understand the value of recent law.

Here are a few examples:

1. Code of Hammurabi

This law, created by the Babylonian king Hammurabi in approximately 1700 BCE, is one of the oldest of the old. It is one of the oldest, deciphered writing of significant length.

Approximately one-half of the code concerns contracts between individuals. For example, it dictates the wages that a surgeon or ox-driver should receive.

2. Magna Carta

The Magna Carta, or “The Great Charter” in Latin, is an English law signed by King John in 1215. The law forced King John of England to announce certain liberties of his subjects and agree that his power was not arbitrary. It is the first law to limit the rights of a monarch and recognize fundamental rights held by persons.

After he signed the charter, King John consistently disobeyed it, but the law was used as a beacon of hope in the English Civil War of the mid-1600s and at the time of the American Revolution in the late-1700s.

3. The Constitution of the United States of America

In 1787, more than 220 years ago, the Founding Fathers of America signed this document, creating the longest lasting republic in the history of the world. The Constitution is the “supreme law” of the land. Through its lenses, all federal laws must be viewed.

In short, “old” laws are not necessarily outdated. Naturally, some are, but many have stood the test of time and are the bedrock on which other laws are built.

As Edmund Burke, a British political theorist of the 18^th Century, wrote, it is important to not throw off the “ancient principles” while being stirred up by the passions of the moment. Doing such is not only disrespectful. It is enormously dangerous.