For most people, the law is something external: heavy books on dusty shelves, serious people arguing in courtrooms, and judges in black robes rendering judgments. Many people find the law to be aloof, complex, and occasionally oppressive. In actuality, however, law is the architecture that subtly shapes our everyday reality rather than an impersonal force that hovers over us. Laws are in place every time you get out of bed, go to work, buy coffee, text a friend, or cross the street. invisible, frequently overlooked, yet incredibly potent.
Fundamentally, law is a society’s narrative about how its members should coexist. It is a narrative that has been constructed over centuries, layer by layer, reflecting mistakes, advancements, hopes, and fears. It consists of both ambition and compromise: ambition because the law is where society dares to write down its highest ideals and then struggles to live by them, and compromise because the law balances millions of conflicting interests.
Why do we follow the law? Only a portion of it can be explained by fear of punishment. In actuality, we obey laws primarily because they establish a common understanding of what is appropriate, predictability where fear might otherwise prevail, and order out of chaos. Without laws, the prospect of a promise made today being broken tomorrow with no repercussions would cast a shadow over even the most basic actions, such as going into a store, lending money to a friend, or signing an employment contract. Although it offers a framework for pursuing justice, the law does not ensure it.
The fact that the law is frequently imperceptible to the people it most successfully protects is among its most striking features. When it fails us, such as when a fraudster eludes justice, when the wealthy appear untouchable, or when bureaucracy reduces human suffering to paper, we notice it. But we don’t see it most of the time. We don’t see contract law subtly enabling companies to collaborate with strangers. Tort laws don’t seem to deter careless drivers from endangering other people. Anti-discrimination laws aren’t used to remind employers that being fair is a must. Silence is frequently the best indicator of a successful law.
However, law is a potent creative force in addition to being a collection of prohibitions. It creates markets, encourages creativity, and makes it possible for strangers to trust one another. There wouldn’t be much motivation to spend years creating a novel or creating a medication that could save lives if intellectual property laws didn’t exist. Without environmental regulations, smog would suffocate cities and industrial pollutants might still be present in rivers. Monopolies could stifle competition and inhibit innovation in the absence of anti-trust laws. The environment in which society competes, collaborates, and dreams is shaped by the law.
The law is dynamic. It adjusts to new realities and moral awakenings, sometimes painfully and slowly. The same ideas that were once used to defend oppression have been reinterpreted to undermine it. The eighteenth-century American Constitution has been interpreted to safeguard marriage equality, civil rights, and privacy in the digital age. Autonomous vehicle damage is now covered by tort law, which was originally used to address injuries from horse carts. Laws pertaining to cybercrime are unable to keep up with the rapid advancements in technology that their drafters could not have predicted. Because society is living, so is the law; as we change, so do its regulations, arguments, and interpretations.
However, law encompasses more than just laws and court rulings. It is also culture, formed by the customs, presumptions, and common beliefs of millions of people. Depending on how citizens, attorneys, police, and judges decide to apply a written law, it can have different results in different locations. Because of this, if legal reforms don’t also result in a shift in public opinion, they may fail. Real legal change frequently starts with public discussions, demonstrations, journalism, and education rather than in legislatures or courts.
The ability of the law to strike a balance between authority and liberty is another aspect of its power. By definition, governments have the authority to tax, regulate, police, and even imprison. Since the law establishes limits on that authority, it benefits the public rather than subjugates it. Judicial review, human rights treaties, and constitutions all exist because unbridled power invariably corrupts. The outcome is legitimacy rather than chaos when people have the ability to challenge the government in court, judges have the authority to overturn unconstitutional laws, and police officers are required to defend their actions in accordance with the law. When people believe that the law applies equally to everyone, including the powerful, they are more inclined to obey it.
But justice cannot be served by the law alone. Law is a tool, sometimes used imperfectly, to achieve justice, which is an ideal. Those in positions of authority may misinterpret written laws, disregard them in real life, or apply them inconsistently. Activists, attorneys, and regular people battle to ensure that the system fulfills its promises in the space between the promise of justice and the reality of injustice. At the core of every civil rights movement is a legal argument: that unfair laws should be repealed, that existing laws should be interpreted more fairly, or that new laws should be made to protect the weak. In this sense, the moral development of society both influences and is influenced by the law.
It’s also important to remember that law is fundamentally human. People write laws, judges interpret them, attorneys argue them, police enforce them, and everyone else lives by them. Its human component is both a strength and a weakness. Judges contribute knowledge and expertise to difficult issues, but they also have prejudices and limitations. Depending on their training, culture, and supervision, police officers can either be threats or protectors. Lawmakers draft legislation based on compromise, lobbying, and their own values. Law is never perfect because it is a human institution, but it can be made better because it is human.
In our own lives, the law frequently seems far away until we need it. Zoning laws are suddenly important for small business owners to understand. An immigrant is subject to deportation and is reliant on asylum laws. When negligence causes harm to a patient, they turn to malpractice law. When divorcing, a couple must deal with family law. Law becomes intimate—sometimes painfully so—in each of these situations. Depending on how it is used, it can either give hope or exacerbate existing wounds.
Legal literacy is important for everyone, even outside of these emergency situations. To understand a contract you sign or to be aware of your fundamental rights, you don’t need to be an attorney. Being knowledgeable gives you more strength to fight against exploitation, but it does not ensure that you will never be harmed. Power is distributed more fairly in a society where everyone is aware of the law.
Law will face previously unheard-of difficulties in the future. For example, when algorithms make decisions, artificial intelligence calls into question accountability. Biotechnology makes us reevaluate our ideas about consent and personhood. As nations struggle with rising sea levels and displaced populations, climate change is expected to change international law, insurance law, and property law. Although they might not always be appropriate for the modern world, the outdated legal frameworks offer a place to start when it comes to adaptation.
History teaches us that although technology advances quickly, human concerns about what we owe one another never go away. How can we strike a balance between security and freedom? Who makes the fairness decisions? The imperfect but necessary attempt by society to provide universally reliable answers to these questions is known as law.
Law is ultimately about more than just control and punishment. It is about the silent pledge society makes to itself that disputes can be settled amicably, that authority has its bounds, that everyone has a right to speak, and that things will get better tomorrow than they are today. This pledge is reaffirmed each time an unjust law is contested, a judge renders an impartial decision, or a regular citizen demands fair treatment.
We are shaped by law, but law is shaped by us. It is a tool for who we want to be and a reflection of who we are. The notion that words on paper, supported by a collective will, can make the powerful answer to the helpless, protect the stranger, and create a society worth living in is still one of humanity’s most amazing accomplishments, despite the fact that it frequently lets us down.