Is a Law Only As Good As Enforcement?
I come bringing a question, what makes something illegal? In a basic sense we would just say anything that goes against, or is banned by a law, but what if the law is never enforced? If you look at the United States government, we have 3 branches, Legislative, Judicial and finally Executive. While the first two are primarily responsible for making the laws, the Executive branches job is the actually enforce them. However what if the executive branch just decides not to then is something not illegal?
In 1832 is when we really saw a huge landmark case, specifically when the supreme court rules that the US government had no right to encroach on Native American lands and push them out. Andrew Jackson, the president at the time, refused to enforce the ruling and continued to claim more territory. Without the backing from the executive branch, the law essentially did not exist. We can see this on much smaller scales within counties or states within the United States. There is a whole book I read as a child dedicated to weird laws, but the vast majority of them are not followed.
An example of one of these weird laws is in Indiana it is illegal to attend a public event or use public transport within 4 hours of eating an onion or garlic. This is a law that is written in the books and has not been repealed, yet the police never enforce it because it is regarded as ridiculous. If we move to laws that might be more severe, position of marijuana in California for a long time was a criminal offense, but it was mostly left up to the police officers discretion whether or not to enforce the law and many did not.
In my opinion a law is only as important as the enforcement that goes behind actually making sure those who break it are held accountable. If there is a large disconnect between the actual people and the legislators who write the laws, they will obviously be meaningless. I talk about this because I often see people talking about what if cryptocurrency was banned by the government to which my response is, lets see if the government can actually enforce the law.
If there are a large amount of people who will use cryptocurrency regardless of what the law says and nobody enforces the law because they think it is stupid, it really carries no weight. Like I said before it technically exists on paper, but so do thousands of laws which no one even acknowledges anymore. The United States in particular has so many laws that I would say very very few people in the entire world even know the ones that exist in their own state let alone the entire country. So I ask that you think about this next time you think about whether something is illegal or not. If the police and government don’t or cant enforce it, I personally am inclined to believe that for all intents and purposes, it isn’t.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges
The problem is.. as long as a law is "on the books", you never know when the day might come where someone finally decides to enforce it.. and if they do enforce it, what are the repercussions?
The question then becomes.. Are you willing to take the risk and face the penalty? or Will you decide that the risk is not worth the reward?
I agree this is probably the major problem, if people want to get you for something they will find something. For example, we just saw Martin Skrelli get convicted of securities fraud. Had he not been an ass and gotten hated by the public, authorities never would have looked into his affairs.
I completely agree with you. There have been so many times when police or other government official decide to bring up a law just to enforce it out of nowhere. Like you said, are we willing to take the risk?
This made me think of something, what do you think would happen if someday somehow they were to reduce the number of laws we have, rule out the ones that are deemed ridiculous. And have just a core set of laws that protect the people, and if you break those laws you don't have to go through the whole arraignment date court date pay a bunch of money for whatever fines and costs a judge serves you, court house mamba, but there would still be a substantial consequence for whatever action was taken? I like thinking out loud. Your post makes me want to think out loud.
yes sir u right on that....
In my opinion a law is only as important as the enforcement that goes behind actually making sure those who break it are held accountable. If there is a large disconnect between the actual people and the legislators who write the laws, they will obviously be meaningless. I talk about this because I often see people talking about what if cryptocurrency was banned by the government to which my response is, lets see if the government can actually enforce the law.
The price would fall but usage would continue, impossible to ban without cutting people off at exit points .
Common sense has a way of taking care of this stuff even in cases as severe as the law. When a law says "You can't cross the street while wearing a red shirt," that kind of thing just falls into obscurity and gets repealed if and when any cop has the audacity to try and cite a citizen for it.
Good post, having as much people who is aware of the benefits defy the law will surely encourage lawmakers to take action either in a good way changing the law, or not.
I support ur view however that law becomes law only when it is enforced rather than it just remaining on a paper.
https://steemit.com/introduceurself/@moonprincess/hi-im-safiya-firstpost. Please read
i think we and every one respect every law everthing best @calaber24p..but i think law is not effected on strong comunities
Maybe. Some laws that are unjust I dont follow.
@calaber24p very nice article and yes if the government makes a law its equally important for them to makes sure to enforce it otherwise the law at its own has no means. i think it is the responsibility of law enforcement agencies to make sure that they can enforce the law successfully.
I tell u my friend... Law is absolutely nothing without d enforcement, its like a "train without an engine"
is the juice worth the squeeze :-) thats the question.
I say always risk it if....
The problem with law is clarity. Law is made broad enough to cover all the different instances that could happen, but could then be used and abused. A good law has to cover all the different aspects of making something illegal, but precise enough that it can't be abused.