Laws are so important because our society cannot function without them. Law satisfies several roles that we need to live our daily lives. The law guarantees general safety, individual rights, and liberties, a way to settle disputes, and maintains order and peace. Law grants justice the ability to exist in our society. Law allows a sigh of relief.
One of the most prominent obligations that the law has to fulfill is to protect our individual rights and liberties. An example of this is our Bill of Rights which grants several civil rights and liberties. The first amendment guarantees freedom of speech (with limitations), press, religion, petition, and the right to assembly, for example. The founding fathers of this nation were so adamant about the rights for a particular reason. They were placed in the Bill of Rights because those unwritten rights got snatched from them. The colonies faced taxation without representation and felt ignored while they voiced their grievances. Without our Bill of Rights, it is easy to see how powerful the government could be and how helpless it could leave us. A different example is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Act ensured fundamental rights and allowed us equal rights because every person deserves to work, vote, and live despite our differences.
Furthermore, the law serves to solve disputes between individuals. An example of a dispute that can occur is divorce. There are two types of divorces, uncontested and contested; In an uncontested divorce, both spouses concur on all issues concerning the divorce. The spouses agree on the division of marital property and child support, for example. A contested divorce is when they disagree. Uncontested divorces are an excellent example of where the justice system solves something where there would be endless arguing and perhaps no solution.
A different example is that the law protects people injured by automobile and workplace accidents, assault, and medical malpractice. A dispute that can come from this is car crashes. The law can determine who is at fault, thanks to the many traffic laws. The next thing the law and justice system provides is a settlement amount. If the settlement amount got left in the air, there would be no justice for the injured.
Finally, the law sets standards and maintains order. Law can determine the fine line between legal and illegal. Some laws are straightforward, like thievery, murder, and child abuse being illegal. However, some include riding with a seatbelt or sitting in the front seat at a certain age. These laws protect our safety. For example, if a collision happened head-on without a seatbelt, the driver could fly out of the windshield. If younger kids are permitted to sit in the front seat, then if the airbag deploys, it can harm them. These laws set standards for road safety. Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo stated, "the final cause of law is the welfare of society." Imagine how distraught society would be and how anarchic it would be without these laws. Children's labor laws being nonexistent, no laws to stop business pollution, no federal banking protection, to list a few. The country would be in chaos and turmoil. The fact that these protections exist gives peace of mind.
In our civil society, the law has four primary purposes, to maintain order, establish standards, resolve disputes, and protect individual rights and liberties. These purposes are not separate, but they weave together to create a functioning, free society. Law grants freedom. To quote former President Ronald Reagan: "Law and freedom must be indivisible partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only chaos and disorder, and without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression." Law remains so ingrained into our society, and we cannot function without it. Law cannot function without us law-abiding citizens and our justice system.
Laws are everywhere. We might not pay close attention, but laws are a fundamental aspect of our lives that guide our actions on a daily basis. They shape the way we behave and the decisions we make. They do so much for society as a whole without people really paying any attention to them. Laws are such an essential aspect of our lives which is why we have to ask, why are they so important?
To me, the law is about three key components: safety, fairness, and order. The main importance of law is to keep people safe. They are put in place for the safety of yourself and others. They regulate people to make sure they do not do actions that might harm another human being or themselves. You would not want to hold the responsibility of harming another human being because of your careless actions, for this reason, laws exist. You know that there is a law put in place to prevent a person from being injured so you obey that law because of that. They make us more cautious of our actions and pay more attention to make sure that other people are safe as well.
The other component is fairness. Laws make sure that a person who commits an action worth being punished for actually gets punished. Not only this but they make sure that any other person who does the same thing or something similar is also punished. If a law is placed and someone breaks it, it is up to law enforcement to make sure that the person is held accountable for their actions. It would not be fair if one person was placed in jail for committing the same act that someone was not placed in jail for. Laws make sure that we are not only held accountable for our actions but that other people are held accountable as well.
The last component of the law is to maintain order. Law was first established in our first civilizations known as Mesopotamia. In Mesopotamia, people struggled to keep order because people were stealing and doing other activities that made others upset. This is why The Hammurabi Code was established. This is the first form of law that we have seen. These codes held people accountable for their bad actions and made sure that they were punished for them. This system was a lot harsher than the system we have in today’s day and age but the principle that it is built upon is the same. Laws create order. People need laws in order to know how they should behave. Without laws, there would be complete chaos in society.
As you can tell, laws are a vital aspect of our lives. They create peace in our society even if you might not think about it. The law is important for the safety of you and other people around you. They make sure that people are treated equally for similar actions that they might do and most importantly they create order in every growing society where it is essential to keep order. For all of these reasons, the law is exceptionally important.
