 Functions of law:

1. To structure the government (e.g. Constitution)

2. To protect citizens´ from the Government (e.g. Bill of Rights)

3. To protect minorities from majorities

4. Setting standards of conduct behavior

5. To create orderly change-rather than revolution or anarchy

6. To resolve disputes peacefully

7. To punish wrong doers

8. To compensate victims Taxing Revenue for the Government

10. Reallocate Resources

11. to foster stability, reliability, predictabilities, etc.

12. To foster & promote morality

13. To promote health & safety

 Role and Function of Law

The role and function of law is difficult to put into specific categories. It is even
very uncertain to say that all legal system necessarily follows same role and
functions to the same extent. There are some more general and broad functions
that law may be said to perform in society

 The following are taken as important functions of law:

A) Social control
 Members of the society may have different social values, various
behaviors and interests. It is important to control those behaviors and to
inculcate socially acceptable social norms among the members of the
society.
 Law specifies when and how people will be held responsible for engaging
in unacceptable or illegal behavior.
 Law acts as a supplement to the informal methods which society uses to
control undesirable behaviors (e.g. Beating a thief by people) or Acts as an
alternative to private feud (e.g. Laws relating to nuisance)
 The function of social control mainly performed by criminal law Purpose is
to ensure that rights and freedom of individuals are protected and
conditions are created for a stable social and political life become possible.
 There are informal and formal social controls. Law is one of the forms of
formal social controls.
 Lawrence M. Freedman explains the following two ways in which law
plays important role in social control:
i) Law clearly specifies rules and norms that are essential for the society
and punishes deviant behavior.
ii) The legal system carries out many rules of social control. Police arrest
burglars, prosecutors prosecute them, courts sentence them, prison
guards watch them, and parole broads release them

B) Dispute settlement
 Disputes are unavoidable in the life of society and it is the role of the law to
settle disputes.
 When there are conflicting or overlapping interest which cannot be
resolved by other means (mutually, out of court), it will have to be resolved
through a legal process.
 Legal process means through which conflict between parties can be
settled is a main role of law.
 Law provides procedures (rules and regulations) and enforces those
through designated institutions (courts, arbitrators) who determine the facts
of disputes- apply appropriate legal rules to them and restore claims by
means of trail or hearing,
 The disagreements that are justifiable will be resolved by law in court or
out of court using alternative dispute settlement mechanisms.
 Thus, law creates conceptual and institutional framework that build trust
among individuals.
 C) Social change
 Law enables us to have purposive, planned, and directed social change
Flexibility of law provides some measure of discretion in law to make it
adaptable to social conditions.
 If law is rigid and unalterable, it may not respond to changes
spontaneously which may lead to resentment and dissatisfaction among
the subjects and may even result into violence or revolution.
 Therefore, some amount of flexibility is inevitable in law

D) Maintaining Order

 Some semblance of order is necessary in a civil society and is therefore

reflected in law.
 The law—when enforced—provides order consistent with society’s
guidelines.
 Laws reflect the value society places on protecting wildlife for future
generations to enjoy.

E) Protecting Liberties and Rights

 The constitutions and statutes of India and its states provide for various
liberties and rights.
 One function of the law is to protect these various liberties and rights from
violations or unreasonable intrusions by persons, organizations, or
government.
 For example, subject to certain exceptions, the First Amendment to the
Constitution prohibits the government from making a law that prohibits the
freedom of speech.
 Someone who believes that his free speech rights have been curtailed by
the government may pursue a remedy by bringing a case in the courts.

F) Facilitative function

 Law provides ways to connect people’s conduct for common goals without
arising conflicts (e.g. laws relating to marriages)
 law performs this by providing set of rules which structures relationships
(all private laws)
 law promotes certainty and predictability and establishes trust in social
life.
 By providing framework of rules, creating rights, powers and obligations,
Law provides individuals with facilities for realizing their wishes and goals.

G) Promoting the integration

 Integration between diverse elements and interests of collective life,

 Roscoe Pound – Law secures, and should secure, social cohesion and
orderly social change by balancing conflicting interests it should Act as an
instrument of conflict managements and to bring about social cohesion
 Law thus helps to organize and harmonize the activities within a group by
providing direction for them to act

H) Social Engineering

 A main function of law is to satisfy demands and desires of individuals in a

limited resources situation in a maximum possible way.
 Roscoe Pound – we have multiplicity of desires and demands which we
seek to satisfy. The desires of each continually conflict with or overlap on
those of others,
 The function of law is to satisfy social wants by giving effect to as much as
we need with the least sacrifice.
 Law acts as the tool of social engineering by maximizing the fulfillment of
the interest of the community and its members and promoting smooth
running of social machinery.
 Instrument of change and reform in order to secure equality of opportunity
and status in society performs task of social engineering by trying to
minimize economic imbalance - by maintaining equal distribution of health
care, education, and housing

I) Social welfare
 With the concept of “welfare state” or “caring society”, law has acquired
great importance as it provide security for matters such education,
health, minors protection etc..,
 modern governments spend a huge sum of money for wide range of
fiscal and social benefits and services.
 Law provide for social justice and welfare in such matters as income tax,
disability and old age retirement benefits, legal aid (Maldives acts)

J) To Legitimize.-
 law is to legitimize governmental institutions.
 it is a function of law to make actions lawful.
 Further analysis reveals, however, that there are various
fundamental types of law, and the interactions between the types
must be considered in any assessment of the legitimizing
functions.
 Thus, Constitutional law may legitimize the legislative acts of a
legislature, which in turn may legitimize a court as a legal
institution, which in turn may promote "laws" through judicial
legislation.

K) Stability:
 Law must aim stability in society
 To achieve stability a balance has to be struck not between
persons, but between interests
 Law has to maximize the fulfillment of interests of community
and its members to promote the smooth functioning of
running of society.
 In a progressive society, law has to keep pace with the
changing needs of society.
 Law has to undergo a progressive change if it is to include the
needs of the society which it seeks to govern.
 The ten major functions of law identified above should not be
considered as independent variables. Each of them is related to all of
the others through their common relationship to the legal system,
although they are not necessarily related to each other in the same
ways. Law probably cannot carry out any of the ten functions without
in some measure carrying out the others.