ds of how laws ought to be made and to a wish for the uniform application of laws throughout the populace. When laws are composed, says Montesquieu, "The style ought to be concise. The style should also be plain and simple, a direct expression being always better understood than an indirect one. 'Tis an essential article that the words of the laws should excite in every body the same ideas . . . The laws ought not to be subtle; they are designated for people of common understanding, not as an art of logic, but as the plain reason of a father of a family . . . There ought to be a certain simplicity and candor in the laws: made to punish the iniquity of men, they themselves ought to have the most spotless innocence" (Montesquieu 376-7). Beccaria suggests that the less complex laws are made, the more likely it will be that the greater number of citizens will be able to abide by the law. The law must be capable of being learned by all. That is the basis of a law-abiding society.
If the interpretation of laws is an evil, another evil, evidently, is
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