Laws and their usefulness

"Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and to disobey and resist unjust laws"

The characteristics which differentiates human being from other living bodies is that human being is a social animal. So being in society every people has his own responsibility to make the society a better one in terms of peacefulness and humanity. Peacefulness in a society can only prevail when there will be certain rules and norms pertaining to equality, justice and other aspects. These rules in written form are laws. Each people have the right to explore those rules and give opinion to the correctness of those laws otherwise the main motivation of making those laws will not be fulfilled. Whenever there are some unrest within the society, then applying those laws and with proper evidences, the wrongdoers should be punished.

As every dwellers of the society should look into the betterment of the society, it is apparently true that each individual has a responsibility to obey just laws and to disobey and resist unjust laws. To me, to certain extent this is correct. Because unjust laws can’t do the betterment of the society rather it can insert more turbulence within it. However, if the argument is examined closely then there will arise some reasons which will oppose the apparent freedom of every individual in a society.

First of all, the word ‘just’ and ‘unjust’ are totally relative to the large population of the society. What is ‘just’ to a man of a society can be purely ‘unjust’ to others and vice-versa. The situation may arise like, every laws are unjust to some people. If this is the case, then there is no need to make the laws. And if there are no laws then an anarchy will prevail. When there is certain law, then it has been made after considering certain situation. It has to have some good prospect which may not be realized by every people in the society. The laws which are ‘unjust’ to some people now, may prove a purely ‘just’ one when such kind of situation will arrive.

Secondly, resisting laws means some people are recalcitrant to the authority. There is no point to resist laws. Things people in society can do is they may discuss with the authority about the disadvantages of such laws. But blatantly refusing laws will not be the intelligent solution. They can make the laws an adaptive one which becomes rigid in pressing situation otherwise flexible. But they can’t disobey the laws because disobeying laws means disobeying the lawmakers which may otherwise provide an adverse effect to the hierarchy of the society.

Finally, to make the society healthier and smoother to live, there should be a good understanding within its people. They must care for each other and feel for one another. Then only a society will be a happy place which can’t be obtained from just condemning some laws which are felt ‘unjust’ to a stint people.