Reading

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 442.

Lead-in

Law and Values

After completing this section students should be able to:

1.Know the relationships between laws and values.

2.Give examples of how laws reflect economic, moral, political and social values.

3.List three essential aspects of a fully effective law.

4.List a number of laws which affect their daily lives.

5.Give examples of relationships between law and morals.

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

George Bernard Shaw

1.Brainstorm purposes of laws.

Why do societies create laws and what do they hope their laws will accomplish?

2.Can there be situations when these goals may conflict with each other?

3.Are there any problems in society that laws cannot solve?

4.How society's values will be reflected in its laws?

Task 1. Explain the words in bold then suggest synonyms for the highlighted words.

Law and Values

Laws generally reflect and promote a society's values. Our legal system is influenced by our society's traditional ideas of right and wrong. For example, laws against murder reflect the moral belief that killing another person is wrong. However, not everything that is immoral is also illegal. For example, lying to a friend may be immoral but is usually not illegal.

We expect our legal system to achieve many goals. These include:

• protecting basic human rights,

• promoting fairness,

• helping resolve conflicts,

• promoting order and stability,

• promoting desirable social and economic behavior,

• representing the will of the majority, and

• protecting the rights of minorities.

Many of society's most difficult problems involve conflicts among these goals. For example, some laws give preference to minorities. Critics of these laws argue that they promote reverse discrimination and racial conflict. Proponents of such laws, however, argue that they make up for past discrimination and promote fairness by leveling an uneven playing field in society today.

Achieving the goals just listed while trying to minimize conflict is a difficult task for our legal system. Laws must balance rights with responsibilities, the will of the majority with the rights of the minority, and the need for order with the need for basic human rights. Reasonable people sometimes disagree over how the law can protect the rights of some without violating the rights of others. However, everyone must remember that laws are intended to protect people and resolve conflicts in everyday life.

Laws can be based on moral, economic, political, or social values. As values change, so can laws. Moral values deal with fundamental questions of right and wrong. For example, laws against killing promote society's primary moral value—the protection of life. However, even this shared moral value— protection of life—is not absolute or universal because in limited circumstances such as self-defense or war, the law allows intentional killing.

Economic values deal with the accumulation, preservation, use, and distribution of wealth. Many laws promote economic values by encouraging certain economic decisions and discouraging others. For example, the law encourages home ownership by giving tax benefits to people who borrow money from a bank to pay for a home. Laws against shoplifting protect property and discourage stealing by providing a criminal penalty.

Political values reflect the relationship between government and individuals. Laws making it easier to vote promote citizen participation in the political process, a basic political value.

Social values concern issues that are important to society. For example, it is a American social value that all students are provided with free public education at least through high school. Consequently, all states have laws providing for such education. Like other values, social values can change. In the past, for example, society believed that school sports were not as important for girls as for boys. This value has changed. Laws now reflect the belief that females should be provided with sports opportunities similar to those offered to males.

Many laws combine moral, economic, political, and social values. For example, laws against theft deal with the moral issue of stealing, the economic issue of protection of property, the political issue of how government punishes those who violate criminal statutes, and the social issue of respecting the property of others.

Many people tend to think that laws can be passed to solve all of their problems. In 1919, the U.S. Constitution was amended to prohibit the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in this country. The Eighteenth Amendment was passed in response to a significant national problem. However, prohibition of alcohol was extremely difficult to enforce, and 14 years later it was repealed by another constitutional amendment.

Some laws designed to protect certain values may interfere with other important values. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Congress moved quickly to pass the USA Patriot Act, a federal law designed to protect against further attacks. Some people criticized this law, which makes certain searches and electronic eavesdropping easier, as an invasion of the civil liberties Americans cherish. Others believe that they may have to sacrifice some liberty for additional security during dangerous times.

Today, legislators try to deal with the country's devastating drug and gang problems by passing a wide variety of laws. People disagree on what role the law can play in solving these problems. Experience shows that there is a limit to what laws can reasonably be expected to do.

Task 2. What are the antonyms?

o majority

o right

o easy

o even

o order

o to attack

o limited

o offence

o spontaneous

o to encourage

o to lend

o group

o to lose smth

o chargeable

o belief

o to divide

o respect

o experienced

o safe

Task 3. Write (present) the main idea of the text.