That old statement : "the law is the law" is a gross over simplification warranting further examination.
It merely implies that state coercive power may be applied against any person or group with legal impunity, in order to enforce a mandate, whose efficacy may or may not have been effected by the observance of either ethical principles or democratic processes. From such processes, and upon said principles, all just laws rest, and derive their critical moral authority . For absent such moral authority any law is unjust. Directly: no law is just, if it is not intrinsically right, and representatively derived.
Similarly, absent the observance of just, ethical, and non-discriminatory principles in a law's promulgation, or execution, it is tyranny disguised as law, masquerading as mandate, unworthy of respect or obedience.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
WHEN THE LAW IS THE LAW
WHEN THE LAW IS THE LAW
That old statement : "the law is the law" is a gross over simplification warranting further examination.
It merely implies that state coercive power may be applied against any person or group with legal impunity, in order to enforce a mandate, whose efficacy may or may not have been effected by the observance of either ethical principles or democratic processes. From such processes, and upon said principles, all just laws rest, and derive their critical moral authority . For absent such moral authority any law is unjust. Directly: no law is just, if it is not intrinsically right, and representatively derived.
Similarly, absent the observance of just, ethical, and non-discriminatory principles in a law's promulgation, or execution, it is tyranny disguised as law, masquerading as mandate, unworthy of respect or obedience.
That old statement : "the law is the law" is a gross over simplification warranting further examination.
It merely implies that state coercive power may be applied against any person or group with legal impunity, in order to enforce a mandate, whose efficacy may or may not have been effected by the observance of either ethical principles or democratic processes. From such processes, and upon said principles, all just laws rest, and derive their critical moral authority . For absent such moral authority any law is unjust. Directly: no law is just, if it is not intrinsically right, and representatively derived.
Similarly, absent the observance of just, ethical, and non-discriminatory principles in a law's promulgation, or execution, it is tyranny disguised as law, masquerading as mandate, unworthy of respect or obedience.