Hobbes, of course. Occasioned by the death of Scalia; it wasn’t the bit I was seeking for, but it was too beautiful to overlook, and almost relevant. And who could resist The Fourth Law Of Nature, Gratitude. But I must stop, and come to my point.
Which was: Hobbes insists on undivided power – he explicitly rejects the separation of powers the USAnians are so keen on. And in case of Justice, he argues that the Sovereign must inevitably have The Right Of All Judicature; And Decision Of Controversies because without the decision of Controversies, there is no protection of one Subject, against the injuries of another; the Lawes concerning Meum and Tuum are in vaine; and to every man remaineth, from the naturall and necessary appetite of his own conservation, the right of protecting himselfe by his private strength, which is the condition of Warre; and contrary to the end for which every Common-wealth is instituted. However that bit doesn’t say what I wanted to find, which is where he says, and I paraphrase, “if the ‘sovereign’ doesn’t decide cases, then someone else does, and that other person or body is actually the sovereign”.
And when you look at, e.g., the US Supreme Court on a 5-4 vote issued a stay of the application of the Clean Power Plan to emitters, I hope you’ll understand my point without me belabouring it.
The rest of this is merely me trying to find the quote I wanted. I think its the first of bolds below.
The Interpretation Of The Law Dependeth On The Soveraign Power
The Legislator known; and the Lawes, either by writing, or by the light of Nature, sufficiently published; there wanteth yet another very materiall circumstance to make them obligatory. For it is not the Letter, but the Intendment, or Meaning; that is to say, the authentique Interpretation of the Law (which is the sense of the Legislator,) in which the nature of the Law consisteth; And therefore the Interpretation of all Lawes dependeth on the Authority Soveraign; and the Interpreters can be none but those, which the Soveraign, (to whom only the Subject oweth obedience) shall appoint. For else, by the craft of an Interpreter, the Law my be made to beare a sense, contrary to that of the Soveraign; by which means the Interpreter becomes the Legislator.
All Lawes Need Interpretation
All Laws, written, and unwritten, have need of Interpretation. The unwritten Law of Nature, though it be easy to such, as without partiality, and passion, make use of their naturall reason, and therefore leaves the violators thereof without excuse; yet considering there be very few, perhaps none, that in some cases are not blinded by self love, or some other passion, it is now become of all Laws the most obscure; and has consequently the greatest need of able Interpreters. The written Laws, if they be short, are easily mis-interpreted, from the divers significations of a word, or two; if long, they be more obscure by the diverse significations of many words: in so much as no written Law, delivered in few, or many words, can be well understood, without a perfect understanding of the finall causes, for which the Law was made; the knowledge of which finall causes is in the Legislator. To him therefore there can not be any knot in the Law, insoluble; either by finding out the ends, to undoe it by; or else by making what ends he will, (as Alexander did with his sword in the Gordian knot,) by the Legislative power; which no other Interpreter can doe.
Refs
* Justice Scalia Dead Following 30-Year Battle With Social Progress
* Law of the case – Brian at Eli’s.
* Burning Down the Constitution – CIP
* Who killed Justice Scalia? Anthony Watts sets some rules for crazy conspiracy theories at WUWT – Sou
* The Senate’s subversion of the Supreme Court – FT
* One of his clerks remembers Scalia
* JUSTICES SCALIA & GINSBURG INSPECT THE STRATOSPHERE
* Hayek vs Hobbes and the theory of law
* Judge tosses case, saying that court-ordered retractions are not part of scientific publication – an example of the law wisely choosing to stay silent.
Says 
The 
