This article serves an a very brief introduction to law, its principles and its role in society, best suited for readers who are beginning to explore the field of law.
What is the law?
When many of us think of the law, its study and its practice, we picture busy offices filled with people in expensive suits, dramatic murder trials, libraries and white wigs, similar to what is portrayed in the popular American T.V. series ‘Suits’, or from movies such as ‘A Few Good Men’ or ‘12 Angry Men’. While not all of us may recognise it, the law isn’t an unconnected and distinct practice for offices and courts alone. The law and its founding principles play a constant, significant, yet often subtle role in our everyday lives; including but not limited to resolving disputes among peers, traffic regulations and supporting the existence of our (political) state.
The perspective I select views the law as a set of normative rules, laying down behavioural standards. What makes law distinct from other social standards or obligations is that the law is enforceable, capable of penalization and universal (within its jurisdiction). My view is that the law exists to enable and facilitate progressive and peaceful human cooperation, trade and conflict resolution by defining acceptable and unacceptable behaviour as well as the respective rewards and penalisation.
What role does law play in our lives?
Robert Summers, an academic at the Cornell School of Law, identified 5 techniques (and purposes) of law.
The use of law to remedy grievances among members of a society
The use of law as a penal instrument, with which to prohibit, prosecute and hence deter forbidden behaviour
Law as an instrument with which to promote certain (socially positive) defined activities (such as the use of nudge theory in encouraging organ donation or discouraging the consumption of cigarettes);
The use of law for managing various governmental public benefits, such as education and welfare policies;
The use of law to give effect to certain private arrangements (such as contract law).
From another school of thought, Frenchman Durkheim argued that Law is a means of solving disputes, and that the conclusions we arrive at from successfully (or generally acceptably) solving disputes is what we then consider the rules of society. Durkheim took a resolution based approach, where the law was created on a need basis arising from disputes. However, today, law is not created not merely from dispute resolutions (called precedents, which are nevertheless an important source of law), but primarily pre-emptively, by a legislative body.
Law and Morals
The law stems from the broad principles of morality and fairness. Both morality and fairness obviously lack universal definitions. Different law-making bodies such as sovereign states (such as the Republic of India) and international governing bodies (such as the European Union) can derive the concepts of morality and fairness from different sources, hence having differences regarding what the law must allow and penalise. However, everything a rational citizen would be expected to do, that is morally correct (with respect to the subjective definitions) is generally legal and vice versa. Morally incorrect actions are generally illegal.
Interestingly, perhaps not all illegal actions are immoral. It takes a very wide, perhaps impossible definition of morality to penalize someone for crossing a speed limit by a miniscule margin on an otherwise empty road, by claiming that he/she acted immorally. The morally correct and rational actions of a citizen are usually seen as legal, even if it mandates an exception from another law. Consider the laws for assault. Generally, violent physical assault is a serious crime. Yet, one might be excused from penalisation for the same if they could prove that their actions were completely in self-defence and of the same degree and nature of the unprovoked attacker.
Essentially, the law reflects (though not entirely) the values we accept fundamentally as a society, and the law changes with changes in our values. The law empowers our governments and us (as citizens), and most of it does not come close to its televised interpretation.
Law and the State
So far, we have looked at the law in context of interactions between citizens. We become ‘citizens’ only with the idea of ‘the state’.
What is ‘the state’ and what is its purpose? The state is our social sovereign body, capable of penalising disobedient citizens and rewarding positive behaviour. Its broad purposes include ensuring the safety and well-being of its citizens. If we integrate the purposes of law with the notion of who/what makes and enforces law, we arrive at the concept of "the state".
To answer the initial question posed "What is the law?", we could conclude that the law is a formal and standardised code of conduct, responsive to changes in social values, created and enforced by organs of the state, for citizens' well-belling.
Acknowledgement: This article is inspired by and contains references to the book "An Introduction to Law" by Phil Harris (Cambridge University Press, 2007)