Unpredictable legal jurisdiction destroys rule of law and trust in courts

Evidence

The Spaniards had succeeded in destroying the purchase of the laws on the community by subverting the customs which sustained them; they had destroyed the rule of law by setting up separate courts both for the barony and for the priesthood and by allowing into the legal system entire categories of exemptions and exceptions so that no one could predict the outcome of a case or know which part of the law applied to him. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1838

Categorization

• XREF: Fragmented, exception-riddled courts that make outcomes unpredictable corrode legal trust — a real-world instance of the observability requirement Hardin highlights for trust to emerge. — connects to: Legal uncertainty creates disputes, litigation, and judicial discretion — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 214; Divergent state liability rules made interstate carriage outcomes unpredictable — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3867; Public confidence in American courts and lawyers is strikingly low — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 98