Lawlessness, Law, and Sanction

Extract

The general contempt for law and the breakdown in the machinery for enforcing it suggest the need for a reconsideration of the principles which give to law its binding force. The very conditions which must prevail in organised society necessitate a social control which is exercised through law and upon which must rest an orderly arrangement as a groundwork of social peace. Peace in society is dependent on social unity. All things naturally crave peace based on order, and although man is by nature meek lawlessness and inflamed passion are capable of making him the worst of brutes. Hence reason dictates the necessity for rules of conduct to be followed by all. Individual inclination must sometimes be restricted and accommodated to the larger interests of society as a whole. St. Thomas therefore defines law as “a dictate of reason, given and promulgated for the common good by one who has charge of the community.” There are, besides statutory law, properly recognised customs which in defect or written law retain their binding force. The obligatory character of law is derived from the power to legislate vested in the representatives of the people, whose charge it is to make provision for the common interests of the society over which they rule. It is by legislation that just relationship is established between members of the state; and as all legislation should be dictated by justice and gives rise to reciprocal rights and duties, every just law has an ethical value. But a law which is unjust is no law, and does not merit obedience.