What no rule requires is not done
Whatever no rule requires is not done, and needs no rule saying so. Where a rule's words would also cover a case they must not, the exception is written into that rule, so that the rule is exact where it is read.
A prohibition that answers no rule decides nothing, and each one written suggests that whatever it does not name is allowed. An exception kept apart from the rule it narrows is missed by whoever reads the rule alone.
The decisions taken on it
- Problem
A rule binding every store of one kind fitted a store for which it had nothing worth measuring, and a rule saying only that something is not done had been proposed for it.
- Ruling
The owner: what no rule requires is understood as not done and needs no rule; an exception refining a general rule is written, for the rule to be exact.