Someone once asked me why lawyers are always controversial and don't seem to think the same way as everyone else. Below is my favorite part of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for all Seasons". It basically shows that there is a difference between what is "morally" right (a moving target) and what is legal. Morality is subjective and emotional and people often condemn you before hearing you out. The law, on the other hand, is objective and based on empirical evidence. The objectivity and predictability of the law provides stability and ensures that we do not only follow the law when it suits our convenience-which is a shortcut to anarchy. Even though it is generally agreed that the law is not infallible and at times we don't agree with certain parts of the law, we should follow every law strictly. The law is not only a spear, but also a shield-if we are selective in what laws we follow, we shouldn't be surprised if other people bend the law to our detriment.
Alice: Arrest him! More: Why, what has he done? Margaret:: He's bad! More: There is no law against that. Roper: There is! God's law! More: Then God can arrest him. Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication. More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal, not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal. Roper: Then you set man's law above God's! More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact -- I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester.I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God. Alice: While you talk, he's gone! More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law! Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law! More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that! More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast -- man's laws, not God's -- and if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Someone once asked me why lawyers are always controversial and don't seem to think the same way as everyone else. Below is my favorite part of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for all Seasons". It basically shows that there is a difference between what is "morally" right (a moving target) and what is legal. Morality is subjective and emotional and people often condemn you before hearing you out. The law, on the other hand, is objective and based on empirical evidence. The objectivity and predictability of the law provides stability and ensures that we do not only follow the law when it suits our convenience-which is a shortcut to anarchy.
Even though it is generally agreed that the law is not infallible and at times we don't agree with certain parts of the law, we should follow every law strictly. The law is not only a spear, but also a shield-if we are selective in what laws we follow, we shouldn't be surprised if other people bend the law to our detriment.
