【Flyer杀G作文组】07月22日Issue17-By 但我

但我UID: 2763822

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."


The chief function of laws is to strike a balance between competing interests. According to the author, people have the duty to not only obey just laws but also disobey unjust ones. However, as for me, I would contend that despite that some laws might be unjust, people shouldn't ignore it, which can be substantiated by the following discussions.
First of all, the order of society is based on the laws; ignoring laws irresponsiblely will result in a social unrest.
As Aristotle, the great ancient Greek philosopher said, law is order, and good law is good order. If there exist no laws on earth, the society would be faced confusions, for there is no rule to judge right and wrong, which means people could do things at their desires. Imagine what will become of people if individuals choose to obey some of the laws while disobeying those that they do not appreciate. People who think that the law forbidding drug merchandising unfair could sell drugs in the public; or people who what to fetch others' properties are encouraged to rob people of their belongings. It is obvious that we are risking sanctioning all evil behaviors if everyone has the right to resist the laws he or she dislikes.
Another fundamental problem with the statement is that there is no strict definition of just law and unjust law. Laws are man-made products, the standards of judging vary from person to person with one's respective perspective. The fairness of law depends on one's personal value system, or personal interest in certain areas, whether he or she is aware of it or not. In the spatial scale, the laws concerning the same matters differ from country to country.
In China, every couple is required to bear no more than one child and abortion is permitted. While in some European countries, spouses are encouraged to bear more children and termination of pregnancy deliberately is forbidden in law. China's law is based on the large amount and sharp increase of population, which aims to strike a balance between population and land, whereas some European countries are short of work force and even stand the decrease of population. In the temporal scale, people’s ideas alter with the change of situation. As American president Thomas Jefferson puts it, no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. In ancient China, a husband is allowed to have more than one wives, while in the People's Republic of China, plural marriage is forbidden in law. This, in a sense, presents convincing evidence that the classification of law into two types as just and unjust is at least arbitrary. In short, the justice of the law is subjective; the chief function of laws is to strike a balance between competing interests and to guarantee the rights of the majority.
Admittedly, in some circumstances, laws are inevitably incomplete or inadequate, and should be altered in the short-term or long-term future. For example, in America, laws governing the racial discrimination are obviously tended to protect someone's privilege, taking no consideration of colored people. To modify these unjust laws, people should reverence the country's laws and overthrow them through legal procedures. Take American black people for instance, they defend their worthy rights by means of nonviolent and peaceful campaigns. Therefore, we should turn to legitimate methods to modify unjust laws.
In summary, due to the subjective factors in making laws, laws shouldn't be classified into just and unjust laws, moreover, despite the imperfection of laws, they guarantee the order of society and everyone should reverence rather than disobey and resist them. On the other hand, one has the responsibility to help the government to improve laws' fairness, and only by this way can our benefits be assured to the utmost.