Anus matronae parvae malas leges faciunt

when little old ladies make excellent law.

Anus matronae parvae malas leges faciunt is a Latin maxim I made up, with a lot of help from my excellent secret Latin Advisor. It means “little old ladies make bad law”.

For every good example of this (There is of course Greenclose, and one could argue the entire modern history of constructive trusts), there are examples where little old ladies make excellent law, as in the case of the stubborn old lady called who, when refused planning permission for a basement, painted her house stripey in protest. Officious pedants at the council tried to order her to repaint it white, and while they were supported by lower level functionaries in district tribunals, but the Queen’s Bench Division was having none of it.

Lisle-Mainwaring v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

See

• Greenclose v National Westminster Bank plc