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Function of Law - To maintain order in society
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Essay (marked at a 2:1) analysing the question 'The function of law is to maintain order in society - Discuss'
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1In considering whether the function of Law is indeed to maintain order in society, I
believe it is necessary to consider four important questions - Namely, (1) what is order?;
(2) How can the law be said to achieve order?; (3) Does the law actually achieve order?;
And (4) what is the role of justice within law?
By analysis of these four issues we will be able to consider to what extent (if at all) the
function of law is to maintain order, and whether or not justice (which is often closely
associated with law) has any importance in relation to it.
(1) What is order?
To be able to decide whether ‘the function of law is to maintain order in society’, it is first
necessary to consider what order actually is, before we can decide whether it is
maintained by law. The dictionary defines order as being ‘a situation in which rules are
obeyed and people do what they are expected to do’[1]. In its purest state, order is about
governing individuals to comply with the will of a sovereign power. Disorder is labelled so
because ‘it is in the interest of the person, or groups, so describing it’ [2]
. As a result, it
could be said that there is no requirement for equality between individuals, or for justice
to prevail, for there to exist an ordered society.
(2) How can the law be said to achieve order?
One way to test whether order is indeed the function of law, is to consider whether and
in what ways the law can be shown to ultimately achieve it. The philosopher H.L.A. Hart
argued that legal systems are best understood as a ‘union of primary and secondary
rules’ [3]. Primary rules are described as things that impose obligations, such as statutes.
Such rules, it is argued, need have ‘no necessary connection to political or moral values’
as these factors are only seen as desirable [4]
. Secondary rules concern the issues of who
1
Cambridge Free Online Dictionary and Thesaurus
<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/order?q=Order> accessed December 15 th 2014
2
Mansell, Meteyard and Thompson A Critical Introduction to Law (3rd Edition) (Cavendish Publishing 2004) page
11
3
H.L.A. Hart The Concept of Law (first published by Oxford, 1961) Chapter V
4
Veitch, Christodoulidis and Farmer Jurisprudence – Themes and Concepts (second edition published by
Routledge, 2012) page 37
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