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Originally Posted by The_FD
that's a point of view... but I am not sure laws anticipate murders or any illegal act... don't human and/or society create laws depending on their needs of the moment? That's is a reaction and not an anticipation (let's take the example of illegal internet downlaoding in France for example).
Moreover this brings us back to a so old question and controversy. Does the Law increase or decrease liberty, and what's an increased (or decreased) liberty?
The Law is here to help society (that's a tool, as I was trying to explain before  ) AND it improve the society as well. Both phenomenon are not opposite I think. |
I don't think that whether law came before or after crimes happened is a problem, for it considers that they are very likely to happen again. If it didn't anticipate them at all, the former crimes would have been thought exceptions and not expected at all to occur another time.
Moreover, to provide for sentences shows well that law doesn't try to improve society, for it takes into account that people will obey it only for fear they might be punished. In Plato, there is the myth of a shepherd called Gyges, who's quite obedient, until he finds a ring which allows him to be invisible ; when he realizes this, he kills the king, marry his wife and becomes a king himself, with complete impunity. I aggree that law is made to help society but I think that what really tries to improve mankind is morals, for it internalizes rules and punishment so that men don't need to be looked after anymore.
The question of increasing or not men's liberty may be then a question of trust in their morality. We don't always need laws to behave as we must.
