Glossary Term: "maxim"

An established principle or proposition. A principle of law universally admitted, as being a correct statement of the law, or as agreeable to natural reason. Coke defines a maxim to be “conclusion of reason,” and says that it is so called “quia maxima ejus dignitas et certissima auctorir tas, et quod maxime omnibus probetur.” Co. Litt. llo. He says in another place: “A maxime is a proposition to be of all men confessed and granted without proof, argument, or discourse.”