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Template:Boilerplate capsule: Difference between revisions
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[[boilerplate|Boilerplate]] is the spark-plugs and fan belts of legal machine: workaday engineering that makes stuff go. What we want from it is ''reliability''. while it cannot ''win'' us the race, it can help stop us ''losing'' it, by working dependably without breaking down. | [[boilerplate|Boilerplate]] is the spark-plugs and fan belts of legal machine: workaday engineering that makes stuff go. What we want from it is ''reliability''. while it cannot ''win'' us the race, it can help stop us ''losing'' it, by working dependably without breaking down. | ||
“Working” means “going in easily” — without argument — and “being commonly understood”; at the limit, being able to withstand scrutiny before the [[Queen’s Bench Division]]. | “Working” means “going in easily” — without argument — and “being commonly understood”; at the limit, being able to withstand scrutiny before the [[Queen’s Bench Division]], though categorically ''not'' being [[written for a judge]]. | ||
Curiously, that quality is not intrinsic to the boilerplate itself, but is a function of ''what the community thinks it means''. There is an [[emergent]] strength in consensus: if everyone uses it, it is more effective, by itself, regardless of the cleverness of its engineering. Law is a sociological phenomenon, first and foremost. | Curiously, that quality is not intrinsic to the boilerplate itself, but is a function of ''what the community thinks it means''. There is an [[emergent]] strength in consensus: if everyone uses it, it is more effective, by itself, regardless of the cleverness of its engineering. Law is a sociological phenomenon, first and foremost. | ||