What is the Nature of Law the nature of authority justification of govt duty to obey

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What is the Nature of Lawthe nature of authority
justification of govt duty to obey

• A body of rules for the guidance of human conduct
  which are imposed and enforced among the members
  of a given state
• A collection of rules for human conduct
  prescribed by humans for the obedience of humans
• A set of rules which form the pattern of
  behaviour of a given society
• A set of rules which are generally obeyed and
  enforced within a politically organized society
• so laws serve to order and regulate the
  affairs of all persons, be they individuals,
  corporations or governments
• and laws act as a standard of conduct and
  morality directed at individuals, groups,
  businesses and government
• ie. to preserve public order and decency, to
  protect against what is offensive or injurious
  and to provide sufficient safeguards against
  exploitation and the corruptions of others
• ? a set of rules for society, designed to
  prohibit certain conduct, to protect basic
  rights and freedoms, and to treat everyone fairly

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John LockeState of Nature contra Hobbes

• Two Treatises of Government
• - refutes the doctrine of the divine and
  absolute right of the Sovereign
• - attempts to reconcile the liberty of the
  citizen with political order
• - the law is to preserve public order and
  decency
• - the law safeguards against exploitation and
  corruption
• - the law recognizes the independence of the
  individual person
• but the Lockean state of nature knows no
  govt but in it, as in political society, men
  are subject to the moral law, which is the law
  of God
• and men are born free and equal in rights
  (natural rights) ?life
• ? liberty
• ie. whatever a man mixes his labour with is
  his to use ?property
• so while the moral law of God is always valid,
  it is not always kept
• then in the state of nature all men equally have
  the right to punish transgressors

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Political Obligation

• Classical (Lockean) Liberalism
• CLs applaud those institutions that reason
  sustains as being conducive to human freedoms
• CLs emphasize those institutions that protect
  negative freedoms (rights against aggression and
  theft)
• so govt is instituted by a social contract
• ie. constitutional govt
• absence of coercion
• political sovereignty originates when people
  agree to delegate legal functions to
  governmental and political officers
• but laws limit legal and political power and
  impose reciprocal legal and political obligations

• Rule of Law
• Judicial independence
• ie. impartial decisions based on the facts in
  each case
• Govt cant itself make law, it only enjoys those
  powers given to it by law
• ie. due process
• Describes an ideal of rationality in the ordering
  of society, as opposed to the arbitrary making of
  decision
• ie. the law should be such that people will be
  able to be guided by it
• Prohibits retro active decision making
• ie. ex post facto lex
• No punishment without a law

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Legal ObligationBrown v. Board of Education

• Legal Reasoning
• legal reasoning refers to arguments that judges
  give, frequently in written form, in support of
  decisions they render. These arguments consist
  of the reasons for their decisions in which those
  reasons are intended as justification for their
  decisions (Golding, 2001).
• eg. Riggs v. Palmer contra Oleff v. Hodap
• so legal obligations oblige us to act in
  accordance with a duty to obey
• but if the definition of law excludes
  principles of justice, the source of legal
  obligation must be sought elsewhere
• Conceptual Justification
• the law is the law and it must be obeyed
• the obligation to obey is written into the very
  idea of legitimate authority
• Consequentialist Justification
• obedience is a necessary condition for a
  civilized society
• obedience can be measured by the effects of
  compliance
• Contractual Justification

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Legal Framework

• if legal obligations oblige us to act in
  accordance with a duty to obey
• then are legally obligatory acts those which
  we are morally, legally, or contractually
  required to perform
• Public Law
• deals with matters that affect society as a
  whole
• ie. includes areas of the law that are known
  as criminal,constitutional or administrative
• so laws that deal with the relationship
  between the individual/state
• but criminal law is not a statement of how
  people ought to behave, it is a statement of
  what will happen if people fail to behave in a
  prescribed manner or act in a certain way
• Private Law
• deals with the relationships between individuals
• ie. contracts, property ownership, rights and
  obligations of family members,and damage to
  one's person or property

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Canadian Legal Structure

• Public Intl Law
• this law is concerned with the affairs of nations
  as members of the intl community
• Domestic Law
• refers to the positive law which governs the
  affairs of all persons within a sovereign
  independent nation
• Substantive Law
• the positive law that creates, defines and
  regulates the rights and duties of the parties
  and that which may give rise to a cause of
  action
• ie. Public Law
• Private Law
• Procedural Law
• the mode of proceeding in which a legal right
  is enforced, including rules of limitation and
  methods of execution, along with the necessary
  steps for initiating a particular action