Law What Is It Good For?

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‘You are breaking the law’ is a phrase oftentimes loaded with assumptions. It assumes law is more than just the paper it is written on but a fundamental expression of our social contract with one another. This tacit, almost unspoken agreement in modern nation-states is supposed to be the bedrock of living within safe and just societies. By living in the state, you submit yourself to the law and ought to abide by it.

For many campaigners, this is increasingly true internationally. Even those who have been in office now demand consequences for state leaders who violate the law internationally. Indeed, we may imagine this would be possible in a perfect world. However, the world currently allows genocides to happen on its watch, and nothing is done. In this sense, the law has run out of road, leading to little more than an anarchic arena devoid of control or the implementation of values.

If Law cannot be enforced, what is its function? Some may say law acts as the written body of the political order. Best exemplified by constitutions, the law can provide a framework for limiting the parameters of democratic will, ensuring the protection of the existing order. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is the US Constitution which decisively narrows the room for politicians to change the law or express the will of the people.

Given the difficulties of amending the constitution, politics tilts towards a legalised process. Rather than simply pontificating on what the law states and administering the legal framework, judges become overtly political figures. At times, landmark judgements such as Brown vs Board of Education or Roe vs Wade make this seem like a blessing. Turbocharging social progress underpinned by law creates a political ringfence many progressives and liberals want to see faster than democratic will may allow for.  

However, if legal judgements are not reflective of democratic will, are they really forwarding social progress? Indeed, a reliance upon the law to enforce specific political choices can induce laziness and complacency amongst a certain breed of political activists. Rather than focusing their efforts on the citizenry, they can legalise political decisions in an attempt to box in their opponents. At times ignoring the fact that laws, like anything else, are subject to the whims of the individuals who make them, activists and politicians fall into the trap of pretending legal protections for vulnerable classes are strong in and of themselves.