Weaponizing the law
With this column, I begin a series on the concept of lawfare, the proposition that law is being weaponized for political purposes—in a good way as when we used law in fighting a military and economic giant, but also unfortunately in an evil way when it is used to violate human rights and suppress our freedoms of expression, press, and dissent. Like religion, morality, and social conventions, law is a normative social practice which purports to guide human behavior and direct human actions and his social, political or economic relations towards a common goal. Apropos is the Latin legal maxim “Lex est sanctio sancta jubens honesta et prohibens contraria” which says that a law is a sacred sanction, commanding what is right and prohibiting the contrary. Along with other social conventions, law is a norm that melds societies together. Without law, there can only be chaos and anarchy. This is why no modern society can possibly function effectively, if not exist, without some form of rule that brings or imposes order on how people should behave in dealing with others. Law is the reason why hitherto small communities are able to transform themselves into great empires. The Roman empire, which originated from an unknown tribe in Latium, was forged not only by military might but by the legal system, to be known as ius gentium or jus gentium (Latin for "law of nations") which created cohesiveness among the different tribes they conquered. The Roman legal system survived the collapse of the Roman empire and was handed down to and inherited by the great Christian empires of Europe, although the traditional ius gentium of the Roman system was now interspersed with canon or ecclesiastical law. When every person in a collectivity operates under the principle of “to each his own,” it will result in the breakdown of order and civility, man being impelled only into action in accordance with his primal instinct of self-preservation. Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen and a few other countries have been declared failed states due to loss of control or legitimacy and inability to perform the functions of a state. Factors that drive states into the abyss of lawlessness and anarchy include escalation of communal conflict like in Somalia, Yugoslavia and Yemen, to name a few; collapse of democratic infrastructure such as Nigeria or Madagascar; or crisis in succession like Iran under the Shah or Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The quest for peace, security and prosperity is a fundamental necessity that drives humans into setting up some form of rules or laws that will create social cohesion and direct the community into achieving a common good. But to attain this, there is a person, group or collectivity of individuals vested with authority to orchestrate the communal effort, make and enforce rules in accordance with the mandate of the sovereign. Since time immemorial, legal theorists have elucidated on the questions: What is law? What is its purpose? What is the distinction between what is legal, ethical, and just?"What is the distinction between what is legal, ethical, and just?"
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