This would eviscerate the longstanding principle that a defendant should not be tried for past deeds.

Father Cogan said this was in keeping with a longstanding principle of church law.

This non-cooperation was behind the longstanding principle of refusal, only reverted in the 1987 decision.

As perceptions and attitudes change, longstanding principles are already colliding with pragmatic goals.

Well, the man does have a record and some longstanding principles.

There is a longstanding legal principle that the federal courts need not take up matters the state courts can decide.

The court's ruling, she wrote, was informed by its understanding of "longstanding law-of-war principles."

Either way, we see this kind of thing as a foot in the door, an erosion of longstanding principle.

"It's a longstanding principle that if a prisoner is brought to the United States, the court doesn't care how he got here," he said.

Open justice is a longstanding and fundamental principle of our legal system.