Prior checking before activity enables preventive rather than retrospective justice

Evidence

The result of compliance with the self-applying part of a prerequisite is to bring under official scrutiny all the proposed instances of the kind of activity in question. Thus, the qualifications of every would-be doctor, and every would-be automobile driver, can be separately examined. Each separate case, moreover, comes before the official before the activity has taken place, and so at a time when it can be considered without the embarrassments which characteristically attend retrospective decision. Prerequisites are the prime instrument of what has been called “preventive justice”. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 753

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the prerequisite and its tie to the concept of ‘preventive justice.’
• XREF: connects to: Postrequisites validate acts after performance instead of requiring prior approval — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 782; Prior-approval requirements have proliferated enormously in American life — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 755; Prior approval works best when after-the-fact checks would be unjust or inadequate — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 762 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Precautionary action against attention extraction is warranted before causal proof arrives #corroborates (0.85)
• Waiting for proof of attention-extraction harms risks acting too late #corroborates (0.85)
• Criminal justice marks, prevents, and punishes wrong conduct in sequence #expands (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 783