Non sis arsholeus nec mercatum cum arsholibus facias

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This article comes to you from the Jolly Contrarian’s legal maxim generation service.

This started out life as “don’t be that guy”, in Latin, but we’ve added an important coda. Don’t be an arsehole, and don’t do business with arseholes, either.

A handy rule when drafting a contract, negotiating one, reading one, going on tour, treating people you meet in your travels, and in life generally.

Be a good egg, and everything usually works out for the best.

There is a school of thought (though it may have but one student) that the central inquiry in any English court can be boiled down to the following simple question: “Who, in the sequence of events with which the court is concerned, was being the biggest dick?”

Note, though: little old ladies are prone to be awarded a handicap in the equity stakes.

Can I just extend the hand of gratitude to my secret Latin advisors, one of which pointed out that it was not non mentula esse, but nolli mentula esse; and the second (and, frankly, better) one corrected the first’s spelling to noli mentula esse. Nil carborundum, etc.

See also

• Don’t be that guy
• Good faith: Not a George Michael album, but hard to argue against all the same. But don’t let that stop a diligent lawyer trying.
• Commercially reasonable manner: A legal way of saying noli mentula esse. Described usefully in Crowther v Arbuthnot Latham & Co Ltd and Barclays v Unicredit