Geography and legal crossroads

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in South Carolina. And to be honest, law is the farthest thing from my mind right now. But in the spirit of good blogging, I’ve ruminated a bit on what to talk about. I’ve decided to take a closer look at how law changes from place to place, and why that influences my belief in a legal crossroad between law and morality. Well what brought on this idea? II was just sitting in a restaurant, sipping on sweet tea, and it crossed my mind how it’s different down here than in the North.

These differences are everywhere. Whether you cross the street, the county line, the state line, or even if you head out of the country. Everyone does things a little differently. Now law is supposed to either be a proponent of social order or the worldly hand of morality. If this is the case, law must change from place to place. This is a very simple idea, which we all agree upon for the most part. The real argument comes when examining morality in relation to this idea. If you are a traditional law theorist you believe that law is derived from a pre ordained morality. Well this idea that law changes from place to place proves that morality is not a codified index for human interaction. Morality itself changes quite often.

What I’m really getting at is that we can’t define law in such absolutes. Saying law is completely and utterly separate from law is an absolute. Saying that law is derived explicitly from morality is an absolute. We can’t stand by and argue completely for one side or the other. Law itself is not black and white, why should its nature be any less grey?

What I am basically saying is that geography can show us how this war between the absolutes is faulty. Law and morality both change slightly from place to place. Because, at the heart of all this, law and morality are human constructions. Law is either a guiding force, or a defining statement. We created it and as good humans, we are all different. The final point is this, when discussing legal theory be cautious. Don’t take an stand on one of the absolutes, argue in the grey areas.