LAW
Perhaps for obvious reasons, when I was driving home the other night I started to think about the law. Although I'm a lawyer, I don't often think about the abstract concept of the law and what it means, what it does. I usually find myself dealing with the nuts and bolts of a law practice, getting things done promptly for a client, making sure that younger lawyers are productively engaged, making the inevitable judgment calls required to complete transactions. But this night, I thought about the law and my deep commitment to honoring the rules.
Some people scoff at my adherence to the rules. People shake their heads when I refuse to jaywalk or urge honoring contracts or decline to modify my view of ethics. I've learned to ignore those who argue in favor of reduced adherence to the law when it's more convenient for them or plead that everyone else is ignoring the rules. Something in the very depths of my being tells me that we must follow the law, the rules that govern our daily lives. If everyone is entitled to ignore the rules at will, then there are no rules.
It's not original to think that rules, fairly and evenly applied, are essential to our lives. Rules, whether statutes or precedents or morality or religion, help us lead good lives, lives of contribution, lives avoiding hurting others. Just as in a game, the absence of rules would mean chaos, would eliminate peace, make things meaningless. I thought about wolves. Wolves lead ordered lives, with a hierarchical structure, following time-tested rules in pursuit, in breeding, even in play. The fact that wolf rules are unwritten does not change their effectiveness, or make them less valuable to the lives of wolves. I also thought about golf, where rigid adherence to rules is automatic, self-enforced and, as in other games, by definition make golf what it is. The law is to our lives like the rules of golf or wolf rules. Without the law, without the rules we have all collectively created for ourselves, life would be unimaginable, life would be unlivable.
While I'm philosophically libertarian and often wish our laws were less restrictive and simpler, I nonetheless fervently wish for even enforcement of our laws, for universal adherence to our laws, for acceptance of the importance of our laws. When I see people deliberately or carelessly ignore the rules, I silently weep because they are challenging the essence of our lives, they are challenging civilization itself.
10-1-01
Home Page 2001 Archives 2000 Archives 1999 Archives