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The Laws Worthy Of Respect Essay

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Paper Topic 1

The law, defined as the ensemble of the norms and principles established in a community, is indispensable to the preservation of the state. Leaned on the moral and the collective consent (Rule of Law), it organizes the organization of the state’s government and the relations between people. However, the law has no effects without our obedience, which is based essentially on the authority (the capacity of the law to make us respect it) but also on our culture or our education. Indeed, even if they never read the whole codes of laws, most of people in United States of America never go to prison.
Could it be challenged though? History proves us that following the rule of law blindly might leads to dreadful consequences. Such as the Eichmann’s case: “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ […].” says Martin Luther King in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Then, are all the laws worthy of respect? What about the Nuremberg’s laws? In order to judge a law, we have to determine the morality, not to make an injustice by breaking a just one. This operation will allow us to take the right decision between the moral duty to obey the law (Socrates: “He who disobeys the law is … thrice wrong”) and the moral duty to avoid the injustice (Socrates: “We must do no wrong”).
Our obligations to a law of the state stop when this law doesn’t respect the obligations the state have toward us or when we do not accept the authority of a state

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