Law is necessary to the creation of a just society

Law is necessary for man for having a properly ordered society

To understand this question of is law necessary, we need to understand the nature of man.
Man has both good as well as evil nature. Sometimes, the evil nature prevails over the good.
The dark and dangerous nature of man needs to be curbed. If it is not curbed, it will lead to total
destruction of social order.
In the absence of law, man's state would be no higher than that of the animals.
Law is, therefore an indispensable restraint upon the forces of evil
Two different reasons for looking at law as a means of social harmony by curbing evils passion
of man:
● Man's nature is intrinsically evil and that no social progress could be achieved without
the restraints of penal laws.
● Those who believed that man's nature was originally good but due to sin and corruption
or some other internal mechanism, lost his original nature, requires law for control of his
nature.
In Ancient China in 3rd century B.C, It was argued that man's nature was initially evil and that
the good ways which men often acted were due to the influence of:
● Teachings of rituals
● Restraints of penal laws

"A single law, enforced by severe penalties is worth more for the maintenance of order than all
the words of all the sages"

Men, if left to themselves would make the world a 'devil's workshop', where logic of the fish
would reign, i.e, it would be the survival of the fittest, the big would eat up all the little ones.

Hobbs: 'Life of primitive man was a state of perpetual warfare, where individual existence was
brutish , nasty and short

Hume - without law, government and coerciveness, the human society would not exist'

Disappearance of primitive innocence

Augustine - state law and coercion were part of the divine order as a means of retraining human
vices due to sin.
Hence, all the established legal institutions and the state power were valid.
Law was a natural necessity to undo man's sinful nature.

Aquinas - held that the state was not a necessary evil, but a natural foundation in the
development of human welfare.

Law is necessary for not merely restraining the evil impulses of man but also for setting him
upon the path of social harmony and welfare.
Anarchist's view point
● Man's nature is and remains basically good but it is the social environment which is
responsible for the evils of man's condition.
● Society will be fence from all legal notes and rational harmony will prevail as a result of
the good sense and social impulses of it's members

Plato in his book, The Republic

● A system of education which will not only produce adequate rulers but will also serve to
condition the rest of the population to the appropriate states of obedience.

On the development of science and technology - Adam Smith

The ---- and law are in principle evil in so far as they constricts or distort the natural
development of economy and of society. This theory strongly favoured the use of coercive law
for the protection of private property

Godwin - anarchist arguing that the evils of society arose not from man's concept of sinful
nature but from the detrimental effects of oppressive human institutions.
Man is inherently capable of unlimited progress and only coercive institutions and
ignorance stand in the way
Godwin held that voluntary co-operative and education would enable all law to be
abolished

Tolstoy propounded a form of anarchy based on his conception of the simple Christian God
,inspired life led by only Christian communities

Karl Marx - anarchist and communist

● Marx envisaged the overthrow of the capitalist society by a violent revolution of the
oppressed proletariat.
● Laws was nothing but a coercive system devised to maintain the privileges of property
owning clan.
● By the revolution, a cleaner society could be brought into being and law and the state
would wither away as being no longer needed to support an oppressive regime
But Marxist socialism has so far entailed more and more law and legal repression rather that its
abolition.

Sir Herbert Read

● Human groups have always spontaneously associated themselves into groups of mutual
aid and to satisfy their needs. Can be relied upon voluntarily to organise a social
economy which will ensure the identification of their needs
Elimination of economic motivation from society
Ex: Crime is largely a relation to the institution of private property.
 ● With the universal decentralization of authority and the simplification of life, disputes can
be restores on a local basis.
● Local associations may form their courts
● These courts are sufficient to administer common law based on common sense

- The recognition that even in the simplest form of society some system of rules is necessary is
inevitable.

● It is necessary to have rules which lay down conditions under which men and women
may live together
● Rules governing family relationships condition under which economies and food
gathering or hunting activities are to be organised