Issue17 【7\8\9\10】作文小组 第十四次作业 8.4

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TOPIC: ISSUE17 - "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws."

I agree with the speaker's assertion so far as every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws. On the other hand, I think to disobey and resist unjust laws is not a good idea. I will explain my thoughts as follows. Before any final conclusion could be made on the topic, the notion of "just" and "unjust" should be defined.

As far as I concerned, whether a law is just or not depends on if it can be accepted by social standard of morality. A just law derives from high moral standard and works beyond morality. It governs a society and controls the behavior of its members in a way which most of people approve. Meanwhile, a just law can represent, and if carried out properly, effectively protect the overall social welfare, that is, welfare from president to pariahs. Laws against crimes help to maintain a peaceful, orderly, relatively stable society which is favored by most of people live in it. Laws inhibiting the racial discrimination are based on the moral standard of everyone is born equal in a certain society. Laws improving the quality of individual in matters of health, education consider interests of the public. Under the law of justice, people in a society have access to maintain human rights.

Given the definition of just law, it is reasonable that every individual in a society ought to obey laws of justice. On the other hand, when confronting with unjust laws, the feeling of dissatisfaction and averseness is understandable. However, taking an action of disobeying and resisting unjust laws is not a good idea and sometimes is perilous for individuals. It is reflected in two aspects. First, since a law is enacted, there must be a low enforcement agency established. Consequently, disobeying and resisting simply may bring punishment to the ones who take such action. Second, admittedly, in history, a lot of people sacrificed to disobey and resist unjust laws. However, most of them didn’t gain the achievement until the government was overturned in the end. The French Revolution might be an apt example. At the level of history, such action accelerated the civilization of human beings. At the level of politics, it affected the stability of a society. Since no one want to run the risk of being arrested or living in a turbulent society, we would better protest unjust laws in a peaceful way if the situation hasn’t come to extreme.

With the development of economics and productivity, some laws which are regarded as just before may probably become unjust ones nowadays. Obviously, if every individual disobeys and resists these unjust laws, the authority of law system in a society is challenged, which may cause turbulence. Since a lot of nations are on the way of democratization, the public should apply peaceful methods to express their skepticism and dissatisfaction of unjust laws. Through a rational way can laws be amended properly. Take the Constitution of the United States as example, until now there have been twenty-seven amendments of the Constitution, more words than the initial one. In short, what we should do to treat unjust laws is to urge the legislature to amend them in rational ways, not simply disobey or resist them

To sum up, justice relies on the moral standard of human beings. To obey just laws is undoubted for every individual in a society. While to treat unjust laws, I’m afraid that a peaceful method is better than simply disobeying and resisting.

世上最恶心的一篇习作。要是抽到法律，直接选另一个TOPIC。