ISSUE17 [戮力同心]小组第六次作业 by nun318

nun318UID: 2205752

17. "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."
有两种法律：公正的和不公正的。每个社会成员都有责任遵守公正的法律，但是更重要的是，更应该不遵守和反抗不公正的法律。

The author simply divides laws into two types: just and unjust, and claims that it is more important that people have responsibility to disobey and resist unjust laws compared to obey just laws. However, everyone does not obey laws which one thinks it is unjust, our society will disorder and chaos. For maintaining a peaceful, orderly, relatively stable society, people should unquestionably obey laws.

Admittedly, there are some laws indeed are not fair even ridiculous in human’s history, such as some serious religious laws in ancient Europe and American slavery laws. These laws deny the principal rule of laws that everyone is created equal. For protecting one’s own rights, individuals had no choice besides disobeyed and resisted those laws in that special period without light. At the same time, those people who violate laws always pay enormous values even their lives. However, as the development of society, present laws system is perfected increasingly in this enlightened age and we have no need to challenge laws and pay for this significant value.

Firstly, there is not a universal standard to judge a law is just or not, at least the author does not points it out in this statement. It is difficult to make all laws to satisfy everyone’s desire, especially ones in different class in the society, because different classes have distinguished values and background. Even in the same class, people always have disagreements and conflicts, so laws cannot be absolutely just or unjust. People cannot violate laws according to individual’s judgment.  If everyone can violate law just for one reason that he or she thinks it is unjust, our society will lose its order, and it is finally have a negative effect on this society as a whole.

Secondly, laws’ authority is not easy to be challenged. Unlike other rules such as morality in our society, laws are enforced by the courts; if you break a law-whether it is just or not-you may pay a fine, pay damages, or go to prison. In another word, you must pay a value if you violate a law. For individuals, they always cannot afford this value, so it might not be a reasonable decision to break a law. In the end, individuals who go against laws would be losers. Some people claims that there are so many people who win this war and become heroes in the history. However, they become heroes because they establish new laws but break old laws. There is totally different between violating laws and revolution.

Finally, even the best intentions, laws are sometimes created that people later recognize as being unjust or unfair. In our democratic and legal society, people gain more and more rights, including to speak out publicly and to seek to change the law by lawful means when they find some laws are flawed. Instead of violating laws, we completely apply some legal approaches to alter or abolish those unjust laws.

To sum up, every member in society has the responsibility to conform for laws rather than disobey laws. Even for those unjust laws, we also adopt legal approaches to alter or abolish them rather than illegal way-breaking laws.