Created on 18 Oct 2020 ;    Modified on 01 Nov 2020 ;    Translationitalian

The foundations of the society based on law

A naive interpretation of the principles of a society [1] based on law ...

... starts by clarifying that the writer is not a jurisprudence scholar. Simply, these days, he is having a senescence attack and remembered when he was studying civics eons ago.

In that ancient age it was taught that law, is the hinge necessary to make people live together peacefully. People who form a collective entity: country, nation, federation, or whatever you want to call it.

But try to leave any physical object in the air. if it is not properly supported, ineluctably it will fall to the ground .

Law, in the social context, is no exception. If it is not adequately supported, it is destined to collapse.

What supports law? We will need these functions.

  • People who create and maintain laws; in a word people who legislate: the legislative power [2].
  • Who is responsible for ensuring exist the conditions to apply correctly and continuously laws; that is: who performs, the executive power [3].
  • Then there are those who check that the laws are correctly applied, and/or not broken; the function of control, or inspection [4].
  • Finally, the fourth support: who judges if actually, and by whom, one law has been broken [5].

We can schematize what has been said with this diagram:

foundations of the society based on law

Reflecting on what we have just said, we are able to understand why is it so important, even vital, to keep strictly separate and autonomous these functions.

E.g. Let's assume that whoever has executive power holds the legislative too [6]. In this case, do you think it would be unlikely that will be created laws whose purpose is not the good of citizens, but the facilitation of the executive function?

Or, let's think what can happen if the control function (Police + Judiciary) also has the power to judge: an accusation would most likely be equivalent to a sentence, without the possibility of defense.

In conclusion: let us cherish the organization of our society and the spirit of our Constitution. These are complex aspects. It takes little to twist them and a lot to rebuild them correctly, for the good of all.

Enjoy. ldfa


[1]In this context, by the term Society we mean a whole of people who organize themselves, sharing values ethical, moral, and the rules of operation of their organization.
[2]Do we remember why the Parliament and the Senate exist?
[3]This is where the Government comes into play.
[4]And this is the Judiciary, which in turn makes use of the forces of Police to actually operate.
[5]Yes, because the Judiciary investigates and possibly accuses. But who judges the validity of the accusation, that is, if the accused is guilty, is the Jury of judges in court.
[6]This is a far-fetched hypothesis, completely impossible in Italy: never seen! :-)