By Ioannis Sistovaris, Year 12
What is law?
As someone who aspires to pursue my further education in fields related to international relations and law, I thought it could prove interesting to share my opinion on why we need a justice system in our everyday lives. To break it down, the justice system has two main components: the judiciary (laws and courts) and justice enforcement (like the police).
Nowadays, the law consists of a lot of different branches. The most commonly known ones being criminal law, corporate law, family law, international law, but it actually consists of a lot more such as agricultural law or even entertainment law.
However, how did law become the backbone of our society? Tracing back to around 2000 BCE, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu crafted the first known code of law, introducing a “cause-and-effect” structure for societal norms, such as imposing a fine for running a red light in today’s world.
But why do we need law?
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes once argued that to avoid chaos and to maintain social order, establishing a sovereign authority was critical. It’s easy to think that distinguishing right from wrong is simple. Precisely, that is actually a very common reflection, but, however, it remains critically wrong.
After reading a handful of law-related books, I realised that morality plays an important and difficult role in finding true justice. An example of this would be philosopher Derek Parfit’s version of the “Trolley Problem”.
“Tunnel. A runaway train is on course to enter a tunnel where we know five people are working on the tracks; they will all be run down and killed if the train is allowed to enter that tunnel. We could divert the train onto a different set of tracks, which would involve it entering a different tunnel, where we know one person is working on the tracks. So if we divert the train, one person will be killed, as opposed to five.”
Would it be ethical to divert the train? A majority of individuals would agree that it is. However, another scenario was provided.
“Fat Man. A runaway train is on course to enter a tunnel where we know five people are working on the tracks; they will all be run down and killed if the train is allowed to enter that tunnel. However, before the train can enter the tunnel, it has to go under a bridge. If we push a Fat Man off the bridge so that he falls in front of the train, he will die, but his bulk will stop the train going into the tunnel, and save the five people’s lives.”
In this case, the majority shifted to declaring that this is, in fact, not ethical. Those straightforward examples are perfect examples that make your brain work in order to make important decisions when it comes to determining between the value of the means as well as their impact on the ends, something crucial to take into account when making decisions.
Through this article, I hope to have shed some light on the intricate nature of law enforcement and its profound significance in society. I personally believe that law truly is the glue that holds society together, providing structure and guidance in our everyday lives. From ancient times to the present, it helps us navigate complex moral dilemmas and maintain order. The Trolley Problem is one of the many examples that illustrates how law helps us to weigh ethical decisions, but also shows how complicated it is to distinguish the right and the wrong, or in other words, to keep a sense of morality.
