Thursday, October 15, 2009

Benefits from the Law

It has been said that people mostly follow law to avoid the sanctions. While I believe to be somewhat true, there are people that follow the law to solely avoid the sanctions the come along with it. There are also people who follow the law because of the freedoms and benefits that it provides. Hart believed that if we did not have law we would be living in a savage society where your property was not protected, your life was not protected, and yours rights to do various things was not protected. For example let’s look at our country how many times have you heard someone say, “Hey, it’s a free country.” Is this not an example of them exercising their benefits that the law provides? Citizen of the U.S. enjoy the right to free speech, right to own property, right to assemble, right to practice the religion of their choice, and the right to bear arms. All of these rights are exercise by people around the country every single day. In class we use our right to free speech, we all use our right to own property, protestors use their right to assemble, and we practice our right to choose our religion when we go to church on Sunday. I do not think that people use these rights because they are afraid of the sanctions that will be brought against them if they violate them. These rights have been come so ingrained in to us that they seem just inherent so we do not see them maybe as we should.

3 comments:

  1. I think people obey law for numerous different reasons. Certain laws naturally coincide with people's morals, while others are constantly broken because people see their actions as acceptable, such as underage drinking. I am not sure how many people really follow the law because of what it provides for them; I think a lot of people just do not care. Also, I do not thing the threat of sanctions is a very big reason for people to obey the law because most of the time when people break the law, they expect themselves to not get caught doing what they are doing.

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  2. I agree with the above comment to an extent, that some of the more "trivial" laws, such as traffic violations are violated mainly because the offenders expect not to be caught, and because the offender does not feel the law they are violating is prohibiting an unacceptable act. However, I think the threat of sanctions may be effective enough in some cases of these non-moral based laws. For example, traffic tickets issued for those parking in Handicap parking spaces can be quite lavish and expensive. Consequently, most people have the sense enough not to park in these spots. This may also tie into morality as well, as it may feel morally wrong to park in a space issued for those who legitimately need a closer proximity.

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  3. I agree with the above comment. I feel as though people use their own personal morality and common sense in following laws. I feel as though people know that it is very likely that they will get caught for parking in a handicap parking space, because there are constantly people monitoring these things. Also people may take into account that it is simply wrong to do such a thing because there really are people who need this assistance. As far as underage drinking goes I feel that most people who partake in this act do it "smartly" enough to not get caught. Especially here at Penn State, students know that it is pretty unlikely that one would be caught for underage drinking, especially if it is done in a quite(ish) private apartment.

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