The Situation and The Law

 Situationism is the view that the situation surrounding an ethical issue should be considered above the actual act. To the situationists, not all actions are planned, some things happen by chance and the situations surrounding all human actions should be considered first before judging the act itself.

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I have theorized on the philosophy of the situationists before when i discussed Euthanasia and Abortion. Please read those articles to know more.

There has been a debate on whether law should be translated the way it is or its spirit. Some people are of the view that we should look at the spirit of law rather than focusing on what it says in the strict sense of it.

There are many laws guiding human actions, some are reasonable and some are not. There are some laws that looks inhuman and very strict but every law has reason behind its enactment. 

There are cases of kidnapping in Nigeria recently and this made the senate to come up with a strict law of death sentence for whoever engages in the act and a 30-year-jail term for anybody that colludes with an abductor.

There is a law in every country that prohibits killing. Killing is a grievous offense and anybody guilty of it would probably be killed too.

Corruption is another issue which every state in the world is suffering from. If anybody is caught stealing public fund or uses public fund for personal things, then the person would be jailed.

Many of these laws were made without our consents. That is, few people sit and decided on what is right or wrong, the punishment for wrong and the reward for right. 

If i am asked about the rationale behind these laws, i doubt if i can give adequate answer to them. These laws were made with 'good' intentions but my worries is the clauses on some certain things.

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They tell us ignorant of the law is not an excuse and this is why they introduced law to us right from elementary school. But what about the market women/men who did not have this opportunity? Perhaps, the answer is, they know by intuition what is right or wrong but nobody ask what their intuition told them before carrying out a supposed wrong act?

Now to the clauses! This same law gives immunity to certain people. I still don't understand why there is a law if some people can be immune to it. It questions the rationale behind it. The incident of a former governor in Nigeria who dressed as a woman from abroad to Nigeria after he committed crime but was later pardoned by the government.

I wonder what they mean by 'pardon'! The same person now has 'right' like every other citizen to contest for an election but a poor man that stole toothpick is in jail.

This brought me to the situationists position that the situation surrounding an incident should be considered first.

Killing is bad but same killing is allowed under 'self defense'! So for the situationists, the situation surrounding the killing should be looked into rather than the act of killing itself.

If someone steal money for instance, instead of condemning the act of stealing as a bad thing, the situationists will look at the situations surrounding the act. Is the person hungry? Did he need money to feed his family? Did he need money to save a friend who is dying at the hospital? These are what the situationists would consider above the act itself. So they look at the spirit of law and ask that judges look beyond what is written and consider the situation of things.

It is possible to think this would give some people the excuse to act immoral and hide under an uncontrollable situation as the reason behind it. But you need to also ask: Why should some few be immune to a law governing all of us? Why should a government decide to pardon a guilty offender? Why do laws always 'favour' mostly the rich people?

One thing is sure, you cannot lie to yourself! Even if you are lying, you will know you are lying! Law should be viewed beyond its documentation. We also need to remember that law is made by man, for man and not man for law.

Thanks for reading. Your boy @smyle the philosopher.