The Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau argued in 1762 that people must be born free and voluntarily give the government legitimate authority through a “social contract” of mutual preservation. In theory, citizens come together to form a society and enact laws while their government implements and enforces those laws. Laws are designed to protect individuals or citizens of society, individually or collectively. Laws exist for five fundamental reasons, and all of them can be abused. Read the top five reasons why laws are necessary for the survival and prosperity of society. As citizens, we respect laws because they are clearly communicated and fairly enforced. Everyone is held accountable under the same laws, and those laws protect our fundamental rights. This is the foundation of the rule of law in the United States. Laws are not just about responding to injustices and prejudices. They work to prevent them. Food safety laws are a prime example. In the past, the food industry was woefully unregulated.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, American food producers resorted to extreme measures in their quest for profit. They diluted the milk and mixed materials like chalk for paint. They mixed dirt into coffee, tea and spices, and added lead to beer and wine. In 1906, President Roosevelt and Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. This was the beginning of modern food safety and surveillance. Today, food safety laws protect the public from life-threatening food poisoning. In the United States, it seems that we have laws, rules and regulations to monitor almost everything. We don`t always like these rules, as they often mean someone telling us what to do or preventing us from doing what we want. But to live in a civil society, we need certain rules that we must follow. This law comes from the judiciary. Although the courts do not pass laws, they interpret them.

This means that the judiciary bases its legal decisions on what is in the constitution and on previous court decisions in similar cases. This is a process called stare decisis, which means “to leave the decision standing” in Latin. When societies change, so must laws. Technological advances are a prime example. Recently, revenge has become a big topic. According to one study, about 10 million Americans shared explicit photos without consent. While there are state laws, there is no federal law. In Australia, an e-petition called on the ATT legislature to criminalize revenge. The assembly listened. This is a great example of how people get involved in the legislative process and question the law as issues evolve.

Social rules are set by the members of society. Disobedience to social rules is followed by punishment for social disapproval. There is no positive punishment associated with breaking the rules, except excommunication or ostracism. On the other hand, the law is applied by the State. The purpose of the law is to bring order to society so that the members of society can progress and develop with some certainty for the future. The state makes laws. Disobedience to state laws invites punishment, which is enforced by the government by state power. What is unenforceable is not a law. Although each country has laws and regulations that it expects from its citizens, they differ from country to country. Some are large and some are small.

For example, in much of the United States, it is illegal to do jaywalk. It is not illegal to do jaywalk in the UK. In Singapore, chewing gum is illegal. It`s not illegal in the United States. In the United States, laws also differ from state to state and within cities. Some laws are strange. For example, in North Carolina, it is illegal to rollerblade on a state highway or for drug dealers not to pay excise tax on the controlled substances they sell. Many laws are specifically designed to protect certain groups of people. Laws such as the Civil Rights Act (United States) and the Sex Discrimination Act (Australia) make discrimination illegal.

These types of laws protect what are called “negative rights,” that is, the right to be free from something like discrimination.