 4 defendants members of the spelunking society

 Trapped in landslide cave

 Rescue party promptly dispatched
 10 of the workmen engaged in clearing the entrance were killed due to landslide.
 It was known that the explorers had carried with them only scant provisions
 It was also known that there was no animal or vegetable matter within the cave on
which they might subsist.
 20th day after imprisonment – learned that they had taken with them into the cave a
portable wireless machine capable of both sending and receiving messages.
 Were advised they could eat someone to survive 10 days longer.
 Discovered that Whetmore had been killed and eaten by his companions.
 Whetmore declared that he withdrew from the arrangement as he had decided on
reflection to wait another week before embracing an expedient so frightful and
odious
 Others charged him with a breach of faith and proceeded to cast the dice
 One of the defendants cast the dice for Whetmore.
 Whetmore said he had no objections to the fairness of the throw.
 Throw went against him, and he was then put to death and eaten by his
companions.
 The defendants were indicted for the murder of roger Whetmore.
 TJ ruled that the defendants were guilty of murdering roger whetmore
 Judge then sentenced them to be hanged.
 Principle of executive clemency seems admirably suited to mitigate the rigors of the
law
 FOSTER J:
 Does not believe that the law compels the monstrous conclusion that the men are
murderers.
 Takes the view that the enacted or positive law including statutes and precedents,
is inapplicable to this case and that this case is governed instead by what ancient
writers in Europe and America called the law of nature.
 The conclusion rests on the proposition that our positive law is predicated on the
possibility of men’s coexistence in society.
 When a situation arises in which the coexistence of men becomes impossible, then a
condition that underlies all of the precedents and statutes has ceased to exist.
 Therefore when the basis disappears to the law then the force behind it disappears
also.
 The maxim cessante ratione legis cessat et epsa lex  the reason for a law ceasing,
the law itself ceases. i.e. Many if not all laws are brought in to respond to situations
that exist at the time of the law.
o The premise that men shall coexist in a group underlies the territorial
principle as it does all of law i.e. JURISDICTIONAL ISSUES
o Foster argues that they were note in ‘a state of civil society’ but in a ‘state of
nature.’ Therefore the law applicable to them is not the enacted and
established law of this commonwealth but the law derived from those
principles that were appropriate to their condition.
o They drew a new charter of government to suit the situation.
 o TALK ABOUT HOW IT SUITED THE MAJORITY MUCH LIKE THE FOUNDATION
OF THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT.
o i.e. notion of contract or agreement.
o Moralists: if the compact was a fiction from a historical point of view, the
notion of compact or agreement the only ethical justification on which the
powers of government could be rested. i.e. powers of government are
justified morally on the ground that these are powers that reasonable men
would agree upon and accept if they were faced with the necessity
constructing q new some order to make their life in common possible.
o THEREFORE  police find their power morally justified by this historial
compact of governmet.
o If we can find no higher source for our legal order, what higher source should
we expect starving unfortunates to find for the order they adopted for
themselves.
  The absolute value of a human life. Challenges the idea that 10 lives are worth
freeing 5.

 WE deliberately and knowingly incur and pay the cost of risking human life on the
assumption that the values obtained for those who survive outweigh the loss.
 Commonwealth v Staymore  Defendant convicted under a statute making it a crim
to leave one’s ar parked in certain areas for a period longer than two hours.
o Defendant had attempted to remove his car but was prevented from doing
so because the streets were obstructed by a political demonstration in which
he took no part and which he had no reason to anticipate.
o His conviction was set aside by this court although his case fell squarely
iwthjin the wording of the statute.
o Fehler v Neegas there was a construction a statute in which the word
‘Not’
o Had plainly been transposed from its intended position in the final and most
crucial section of the act.
o The transposition was contained in all the successive drafts of the act where
it was apparently overlooked by the draftsmen and sponsors of the
legislation.
 TATTING J
 Rebuts ‘state of natural law’ argument by Foster  whether it is the thickness of the
rock that imrpisoned them or because they were hungry or because they had set up
a ‘new charter of governemnt’ by which the usual rules of law were to be supplanted
by a throw of the dice.
 i.e. when did the moment of adopting a new jurisdiction occur? Was it when the
entrance to the cave was bloced or when the threat of starvation reached a certain
undefined degree of intendity or when the agreement for the throwing of the dice
was made?
  OWN NOTE: Tatting is construing the natural law in terms of the positive law, that
is to say he is superimposing the values of the positive legal system onto the natural
system. He is WRONG in doing this!! (where he says it is an odious system where
contract is more important than murder).
 Argue that Foster’s reasoning would compel the court to overrule Commonwealth v
Val-jean and many other precents that have been built on that case.
 Declared a withdrawal from the decision of the case
 KEEN J
 2 questions:
o Whether executive clemency should be extended to these defendants If the
conviction is affirmed
o Whether what these men did was right or wrong wicked or good.
o The sole question however is whether these defendants did within the
meaning f NCSA wilfully take the life of Roger Whetmore.
 Judicial Reform: 3 steps
 1. To divine some single purpose which the statute serves
 2. To discover that a maythical being called ‘the legislator’ in the pursuit of this
imagined purpose overlooked something or left some gap or imperfection in his
work.
 3. Fill the blank thus created Quod erat faciendum that which has to be done.
