BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
People have the will and the natural dictates that necessitate the advantages of living together lest they are exposed to attacks of any form. In coexistence, there should be some kind of force to deter the social ills in the relationship among people. If the social malady that creates disorder is left unchecked, the rule of force triumphs instead of the rule of law.
Human nature is the basis for what man does for good or bad will. Whichever type it is, there is always a law that controls it. This very law is commonly known as natural law, a system based on close observation of human nature and justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law and government.
Often, we are instructed what and what not to do by someone who is older/stronger or richer than we are or by a person with legal authority: “Do not run with scissors in your hand!” “Do not drive your car on the sidewalk!” “Do not steal your friend’s property!” From whom or from where the command comes, it is imperative that the law is enacted in its various forms.
As a matter of fact, how many times a day does someone tell you what to do? How often do you have to stop yourself from doing what you want, because you know that this action is prohibited or wrong? Obviously, the law is not limited to only “don’ts”, it equally treats the “dos” in its enactment.
While the “don’ts” are commands or impositions that are negatively tuned, the “dos” are positively asserted form of demands that individuals should abide by the rules set by the law as follows: “Please keep right, if you don’t you will face accident and will be brought to the court of law and either be imprisoned or face heavy penalty charge.
Be it positive or negative, at the end, the individual is either rewarded for obedience or punished and reprimanded for disobedience. Obedience, after all, is willing to do what one is told to do which is in this case the law. On the contrary, disobedience is failing or refusing to do or obey what one is ordered or expected to do.
Everywhere in the world it seems like there are laws, rules, and regulations to oversee just about everything. These rules are not always liked, since they often mean that someone is telling us what to do, or keeping us from doing what we want. Yet to live in a civil society, we must have some rules to follow.
Who gets to make these rules? Where do they come from? What happens when we break them? These are the questions this article seeks to answer for you, of course from the lay man’s view.
Laws are rules that bind the people living in a community. Laws protect our general safety, and ensure our rights as citizens against abuses by other people, by organizations, and or by the government itself. These laws exist at the local, state and national levels. Citizens, for example, should all be ensured of food security.
Along the right to eat goes the responsibility of producing food. Nothing comes for free; each person is expected to do his part to contribute to the efforts of ensuring the availability food or anything for fellow citizen.
Lest one abuses food distribution by claiming a share without contributing, the law intervenes to regulate and put the situation under control. Under normal situation, the law is regulator or else it uses its dictatorial mandate for anything that goes wrong.
With respect to this, at the state and local level, health departments have guidelines that restaurants follow for how to store and prepare food in a healthy manner, so that diners won’t get sick.
At the national level, the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies inspect food production plants to be sure that the food that shows up in your supermarket is safe to eat. Abreast of this, speed limits and traffic laws exist so that we drive in a safe manner although many drivers turn deaf ears to it.
Because of this very fact, traffic disobedience takes the lives of many Ethiopians each year and the country is placed among the countries with highest traffic accidents in the world.
Licensing for doctors and nurses ensures proper training of the people who look after us, and who often have our lives in their hands. Yet, we often witness that some of these professionals often fall short of what is expected of them when seen from the standard of the ethics that they vowed to observe at graduation ceremony. Therefore, the extreme violation of the ethics calls for the direct involvement of the law to iron out the situation.
We also have laws that protect our rights as citizens, and which include things like: Laws that guarantee our basic rights like freedom of speech, religion, and the press; laws that protect us from discrimination because of our race, gender, age, or disability.
The intervention of the law is of paramount importance in helping those who are subject to servitude because of inequalities of any form that is levied upon the victims. In some countries around the world where there are settlers and indigenous people like the United States, Australia, which are supposed to be highly civilized, the law rather seems a toothless lion with regard to equal rights of all the citizens regardless of their skin color and ethnic background.
A question is often raised as to where the law comes from. In almost all countries, the Constitution is the ultimate source of the law. However, still in many countries it is not designed to address every specific legal question; that is why there is high frequency of amendments from time to time. Within the boundaries of the Constitution, there are two primary sources of law, common law or unwritten law developed from old customs and statutory or constitutional law.
This law comes from the judicial branch. Though the courts do not pass laws, they do interpret them. This means that the judiciary bases their legal decisions on what is written in the Constitution, and on previous court rulings in similar cases. This is a process called “let the decision stand.”
It is a principle that a question once considered by a court and answered must elicit the same response each time the same issue is brought before the courts. There should never be wavering in the questions and responses by the court of law; similar issues consistently handed in all the courts. It is only then that the law is capable to deserve its validity in serving justice.
The law is the parameter which affects and controls the way people conduct themselves; without this parameter, unruliness prevails only to entail disorder be it social, political or economic and even religion. It implies that where there is no law, there is no good or evil or right or wrong, and every act is justifiable despite its unpredictable consequences.
Where there are on laws, institutions are dissolved, social fabrics are dismantled and chaos prevails ultimately. In such dire situation, anarchy triumphs and the people are left without security. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to be law-abiding citizens for safe and peaceful human existence and the sustainable development of the country.
The Ethiopian herald December 26/2020
