issue17 写了两次才完成

qisaimanUID: 2703629

ISSUE17 qisaiman- "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."
WORDS: 517
TIME: 00:44:33
DATE: 2010-2-27 15:25:06


It is a solid fact that the law cannot be just to each individual it regulates. And the unjust law has been debated heated recently. As far as I am concerned, individual should be rational to deal with the so-called unjust law rather than disobey or resist it, which can bring no benefit but unnecessary harm to both the individual and the society.

To be specific, law discussed here includes civil law, crime law and various provisions regulated by the government. General speaking, law, protecting those who obey it and punishing those who not, should ensure equal rights and obligations to each individual. Unfortunately, due to the sophisticated social reality and inherent human nature, there is no law which can guarantee being absolute just all the time and to each one. In fact, whether law is just or not is to a large extent, a subjective standard which depends on how the interests of individual are influenced. Hence, how to deal with the "unjust" law requires rational thinking of each one involved.

Consider the household register in China. This regulation connects each individual to where he or she is born, and to a great degree, determines the life of most Chinese. This policy mainly stems from the urban and rural construct of Chinese society, and the policymakers try to maintain the "balance" between its vast population and limited resources, including education, health care and jobs. Needless to say, it is unfair to those who live in rural area and seriously violates the migration freedom of the citizens. However, disobedience can lend little help, only leading to individual harm both in physical and mental. To tackle this persistent problem, it is of great importance to develop the economy and arouse the public awareness on the basic human rights.

Another example is about the sex law against the children molesters in America. Most parents would probably agree that those sex offenders should receive severe punishment. As a matter of fact, the punishment includes longer sentence, and a registries approach, by which those who once committed such crime had to publish their private information, such as names, household and portraits.
Here the public tend to hold the law is just and the criminals just deserve it. However, the law generates negative consequences, leading to, for example, discrimination for the former criminal in job applications. The consequence is those who want to change are frustrated, and those who not become even more dangerous. Here the law is unjust since the punishment does not fit the crime, rendering it a vengeful one.

From the above analysis, we can see that the law can be unjust to both majority and minority in a society. But both of them can hardly benefit from disobedience. A more appropriate way to cope with these problems calls for each individual being rational rather than emotional, whether they are the victims or not, since the history has told that violence only bring about more hatred. After all, law can be changed and I maintain that a non-violence approach is always the favored one.