Book 7
7.2
But it is clear to everybody that one law cannot contradict another in principle (since if there were two different principles, one law would cancel the other), and that the laws in question are brought into collision purely by the accidents of chance. When two laws clash, they may be of a similar nature, as for instance if we have to compare two cases in which a tyrannicide and a brave man are given the choice of their reward, both being granted the privilege of choosing whatever they desire. In such a case we compare the deserts of the claimants, the occasions of the respective acts and the nature of the rewards claimed.
7.3
Or the same law may be in conflict with itself, as in the case where we have two brave men, Both claiming the reward allotted by the law. two tyrannicides Both claiming the reward allotted by the law. or two ravished women, Two women, both dishonoured by one man, put in different claims, both of which are provided for as alternatives in the same law. A. demands the ravisher's death, B. demands his hand in marriage. when the question must turn either on time (that is, whose claim has priority) or on quality (that is, whose claim is the more just). Again, we may have a conflict between diverse, similar or dissimilar laws.
