Accuser-risk principle
The structural rule, present in continuous form across roughly 3,200 years of written legal tradition Anglo-American law descends from, that a person bringing a formal accusation bears personal risk proportional to the penalty the accusation would impose on the accused. The principle's specific forms differ across traditions, but the function is consistent: the accuser's personal stake is the natural check on the volume and quality of accusations the system processes.
May 19, 2026