Defensor legum auctoritas translates as ‘Defender of the rule of law’. The Latin version was devised at FB’s request by his Balliol friend Jasper Griffin, who was Public Orator and Professor of Classical Literature in the University of Oxford 1992-2004. FB is currently writing a book to be entitled The Rule of Law. His private prosecution of Peter Hain was brought in his self-appointed role as defender of that vital principle.