[i习作temp] issue174 我怎么感觉不进步呢！法律应该变化还是僵化的。 [复制链接]

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发表于 2004-12-16 08:25:12 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

174"Laws should not be rigid or fixed. Instead, they should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places."

正文
Should laws be fixed and stationary or flexible? The author claims that laws should be flexible enough to cover various circumstances, times, and places. I agree insofar as that laws should be changeable so as to continue to exert influence on people’s behavior; nevertheless, we should caution that too protean changes of laws would defeat their initial purposes, or even bring chaos to the society.

Admittedly, any law are artificial regulation that should be altered in accord with the changes of the society. With the lapse of time, laws can become inconsistent with the changes of society, therefore needing modified. On the one hand, with the stunning pace of change and advance of the whole society, some new emerging situations can be not included in the existing law system, which need to be added or supplemented into the laws to make them more effective restrictions and guidance of people’s behavior in a broader scope. For example, with the worldwide impact and function of Internet and the popularity of personal computers in the world scale, many new types of business activities and crimes which are based on these high technology tools and facilitates come into beings, putting a urgent call for the legislation of the corresponding laws to regulate these new business and deter and punish these new crimes. Another appropriate example that can aptly illustrate this point is legalization of marijuana for medical treatment. Although marijuana has been notorious as an addiction, it is found that marijuana is actually useful in the clinic medicine. Becoming aware of this new found positive function of marijuana and sensible in treating marijuana from a dichotomical perspective rather than exclusively rejection of it, this new laws come into realization. Also the formation of laws that protect homosexuals and women from discrimination in the workplace are all the good indicators of the larger compatibility of laws with the change of ideas and mores of the current society. On the other hand, some parts of the old laws, which were effective in protecting the interests of human beings in the past are now in fact detrimental to the welfare of people, have to undergo modification or even abolition. The amendment of two civil rights laws during the 60s in America that removed racial segregation from public facilitates in the South and also removed the barriers that had prevented Africa-American from voting in that region comes into my minds. It is a great advance showing the larger compatibility of laws with the changing situations.

Nevertheless, laws have to maintain constant and stationary in a certain time span so that individuals and social groups as well can find suitable standards to adhere to and conduct their behaviors accordingly. For individuals, if laws are in a state of frequent changes, they will become confounded to be unaware of whether doing something is legal or illegal. An appropriate example to illustrate this point is that if the speed limit on a certain part of highway keeps changing from time to time, the drivers would be thrown into confusion and consequently caught by the police for violating the traffic rules. When members of the society are always enmeshed in such confused situations in many aspects of life, the whole society would understandably be in chaos and the progression of the society will cease to exist. For social groups, such as some business enterprises, they will have to do research on the existing law system to maximize the profits for the shareholders without breaking the boundary of laws. However, if there is no relatively constant existence of laws, it will be a large cost of time and money for the business to keep a close eye on the lately changes of relevant laws and continue revising the business plans, eventual reducing the efficacy and productivity of these businesses. As a result, the law system, which are intended to provide a stable environment to promote the vibrant progress of the society, ultimately become the very impediment of progress.

In sum, it is necessary for laws to change over circumstances, times and places. However, it is equally important for laws to keep stable and constant in a period to better serve the interests of people and the society as well.