21. Laws should be flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places.
With the development of society, situations are usually different from previous world, thus it is reasonable that laws should be adapted to be suitable for the new situation. Admittedly, as a authentic criterion for people to obey, laws should be to some extent consistent, stable and predictable.
It is easy to understand that laws should be flexible since it can to some extent protect the justices which the precondition of accomplishing the laws' fundamental mission to keep the society orderly thus developing the society. From a lateral prospective, the situations in different part of nation may be vast different and if laws applied inflexibly, it is easy to lead to the injustice. For example, since the different economic situation it is very possible that things that sold as the price have essentially different value, thus it is unfair to give the same sentence to two persons in different countries just based on that they stole something that had the same price. Furthermore, when it comes to laws concerning population policy, it seems absurd that the policy in China are the same as that in Europe since the birthrate of China is so high while applied the same policy of Europe that encouraging people to give birth to as many children as possible, the pressure of population in China would be greater and great and that would be detrimental not only to the development of China but the development of the whole world.
In a vertical view, the change of laws can be one of the symbols of a revolution in a society. With the development of society, the customs may have changed, and it seems unreasonable to insist the rigid law even if the situation has changed. On one hand, some behaviors that was illicit may be so unreasonable that should be legal now. For example, before the revolution in 1911 in China, it was forbidden to cut someone's braid which seems absurd in modern people's eyes. On the other hand, some behaviors that was licit in ancient time may be improperly lawful any more. Take the polygamy of China as an example. In ancient China, men could own a lot of wifies at the same time legally, however, with the progress of society, people are aware of the importance of equality and it would be unreasonable to keep polygamy licitly.
Admittedly, as the fundamental standard for what cannot be done that coercing people to obey, it calls for consistency, stability and predictability. It is easy to understand. Imagining that some behavior which was legal yesterday is illicit today, one must be feel unsafe since maybe one day he would commit a crime that he has yet known even till he is arrested, to some extent, the society will become utter chaos, let alone development.
In conclusion, it is reasonable to keep some absolutely rightness into laws for people to obey and protecting the society from chaos, however, what is more important, laws should flexible according to different circumstances, times and places for the sake of justices and society's development.
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发表于 2012-4-30 13:08:14
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