Colleagues,
With Sydney in lockdown, I was reading a book which had a couple of pages on Teddy Roosevelt, which led me to recall some trivia about him and the caveat emptor principle.
In his recollections of his days as a student who dropped out of law studies at Columbia Law School, Roosevelt wrote: ‘The caveat emptor side of the law, like to caveat
emptor side of business, seemed to me repellent; it did not make for social fair dealing. The “let the buyer beware” maxim, when translated into actual practice, whether in law or business, tends to translate itself further into the seller making his profit
at the expense of the buyer, instead of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both. It did not seem to me that the law was framed to discourage as it should sharp practice, and all other kinds of bargains except those which are fair and of benefit to
both sides’: T Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt: An Autobiography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1921, p 55.
Peter Radan
Professor Peter Radan,
Honorary Professor, Macquarie University
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law
BA, LLB, PhD (Syd), Dip Ed (Syd CAE)
Macquarie Law School
6 First Walk,
Macquarie University, NSW, 2109
Australia
Email: peter.radan@mq.edu.au
Blog: https://www.allaboutnothing.info