View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Miami School of Law University of Miami Law School Institutional Repository University of Miami Law Review 2-1-1949 Historical Background of Florida Law James Milton Carson Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr Recommended Citation James Milton Carson, Historical Background of Florida Law, 3 U. Miami L. Rev. 254 (1949) Available at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol3/iss2/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami Law Review by an authorized administrator of Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF FLORIDA LAW* * JAMES MILTON CARSON ' I THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LAW All law must derive from the psychology of the people of each particular jurisdiction, and when we speak of the psychology of the people we mean the controlling, or "mass," or "mob" psychology of the people in any particular jurisdiction. Clarence Darrow in an.article in the American Mercury,1 went very deeply into the history of the influence of the masses of the people upon laws sought to be imposed from above, and demonstrated that even in countries whose governments are considered despotic or monarchical, the people them- selves must support the laws, or else they fall into disuse and are finally re- pealed. Since law must depend upon the psychology of the people in the particular jurisdiction, it becomes essential in trying to trace the development of law in a state such as Florida to consider the different influences which enter into the formation of the so-called "mob" psychology of the people.