Psychology Today | 22.12.2025 21:22
Most non-lawyers (myself included) probably don’t recognize the Latin “ignorantia juris non excusat,” we know the translation: “ignorance of law excuses no one.” It’s an idea as old as law itself and perhaps best summed up by Thomas Jefferson (1787), who wrote: “…ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can be always pretended” (para. 2).
