serial quoters

The pomp, the exquisite words, the neologisms, the pretentious erudition, the convoluted thought, the empty sentences, the vacuous expressions, the verbal extravagance are all devised to prevent the reader from realizing that the King is naked.

However, the most serious consequence of this Coimbra Law culture is that it paralyzes thought and makes intellectual debate a forgone conclusion. That is achieved by the technique of serial quoting that is illustrated in this post. In a single paragraph the author quotes seven different people.

Jurists in this tradition are trained to quote people. For each particular topic in their field their first and only concern is to find out what other people they regard as authorities have said about it. Sometimes there is no relationship between the topic under consideration and what the authorities say. The authorities might even be from a totally different field, provided they are authorities (see, for example, the cases of Lobo Antunes, Saramago, Pessoa, Kirkegaard, Lídia Jorge in the posts below). Even in such cases, they keep quoting.

In their search to find out what the maximum number of authorities in the World have thought about their topic, jurists forget their own ability to think. They are so busy with other people's brains that it never occurs to them they have brains of their own. Thus, the typical article or book written by a jurist presents the reader with scores of quotations about each particular topic. But once you get to the end and ask "Now, what does the author think himself about this subject?" the answer is usually a disappointing: Nothing.

The same result can be observed in any discussion with the typical jurist. First, he will try to dismiss you as not being from the field, thus lacking the credentials to discuss Law with him. Second, if you are persistent enough to penetrate his castle, he will throw insult and other personal abuse at you, which is his second line of defence. If you finally succeed to engage him in a discussion he will quote and quote and quote. You will notice, though, that he has not one single thought of his own about the subject matter under discussion.