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As an instrument for practical action, law is responsive to the wisdom of its time, which may be wrong, but it carries forward, sometimes in opposition to this wisdom or passion, a memory of received values.

Edward H. Levi (2013). “Restoring Justice: The Speeches of Attorney General Edward H. Levi”, p.38, University of Chicago Press
As an instrument for practical action, law is responsive to the wisdom of its time, which may be wrong, but it carries forward, sometimes in opposition to this wisdom or passion, a memory of received values.