Law and Society

Law and Society

What role law plays in scoiety

Society-group of people with common territory, interaction, and culture. Culture can include language, beliefs, behaviour, etc. Members of a scoiety may not sahre every aspect of culture. Society today is very complex with different groups in these societies. There are two types of societies that we look at:

• Pluralism- a form of society in which members of minority groups maintain their independent cultural traditions while being part of society as a whole. Pluralist believe that the existence of different types of people, beliefs and opinions within a society is a good thing and requires tolerance from all members.
• Multiculturalism- a society that lacks a dominant culture with independent groups that do not tolerate each other.

The UK has always been a society composed of many different people, a history of invasions and conquests have meant that different groups have had a dominant culture over everyone such as the Vikings. Also, immigration has lead to different people coming into the UK. These members tend to congregate together for comfort and to perserve their cultural indentity. Some of these traditions however will contradict the dominant beliefs of society. Therefore, these members will have to give up their traditions to fit in. This is known as assimilation. However, in Pluralistic societies, these groups do not have to give up all their traditions for example in the UK many still perform Ramadan and other tradtitions. 

Pluralistic societies do not have a group that is considered more influental than the other, but have informal machanisms such as discrimination that prevent groups from being powerful enough to be a mian contributor towards society in the sense of politics or expression. The role of law includes the regulation and control of society.

Law in society

The law attempts to control society thorugh regulation. This requires a clear set of laws that are clear and accesible to all, strong enforcement, and an independent judicary to prevent arbitrary use of power by the state. This conforms with the Rule of Law. Lord Bingham indentified that the rule of law being that all persons and authoritives within the state should be bound by and entitiles to the benefit of laws publicly. He set out the rule of law through 8 principles which society must embrace:

1. The state must abide by both domestic and international law. This means no government has the ability to act at whim.

2. People should only be punished for crimes set out by law.

3.Questions on the infrigement of rights should be subject to the application of law, not discretion.

4. The law should be accessible, clea, precise and open to public scrutiny.

5. All people should be treated equally.

6. There must be a respect for human rights.

7. Courts must  be accessible, affordable and cases should be heard without excessive delay.

8. The means must be provided for resolving, without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay, bona fide disputes which the parties themselves are unable…