Legal Self Defense - Fundamentals - The purpose of law and categorizing types of law
see introduction
Purpose of Law
The purpose of law is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and violence.
Before we had a system of law, serious disputes were often resolved by one or more of the following:
- Trial by combat (might makes right)
- Blood feuds
- Fighting
This often resulted in serious damage to one or more of those involved.
Purpose of our Legal System
Our legal system was designed as a way for people to:
- Right wrongs done to themselves and others
- Allow the accused to defend themselves
- Make any injured party whole again
If you learn how to access the law properly, you will be able to hold those who trespass against you accountable for their actions and get compensation for any damage done to you.
The two primary types of process we will be covering are:
- Civil: Suits by people against other people, corporations, or government entities
- Criminal: Suits by government entities against people
As we go through each process, we will take a close look at whether the process actually does the above or not.
Creating a Mental Framework
To defend yourself with law, it helps to create a mental framework concerning the types of law that exist.
For the purpose of defending yourself, I consider there to be 5 primary types of law:
- Natural Law
- The Common Law
- Constitutional Law
- Statutory Law
- Private Law
Natural Law
Natural law is that law which any reasonable man or woman can discover for themselves simply by considering what harms no one else.
This is the type of law that has been used over time to build up our common law.
It is also the reason that you will hear "ignorance of the law is no excuse..." when breaking the law.
If my rights end where yours begin, then harming other people whether by theft, direct injury, or otherwise, is against the law.
We won't cover natural law much as it is a philosophy. That being said, it has played heavily in the creation of the common law.
The Common Law
The common law consists of the laws we inherited from England (unless you are in Louisiana, which inherited french law) and is the basis for all of our law in the united states.
The common law, along with established case law since separating from England, is what we will be primarily using in this series.
It can be found both by reading English law going back to the middle ages and via reference in established case law.
Constitutional Law
This is law based upon our various constitutions, which have to do with establishing the governments and the powers that we are purported to have given to them.
It is worth noting the following about our constitutions
- They do not give us any rights. Rights are innate.
- Just because a power is provided to a government does not mean that the states or the people give up that power
You will hear people reference constitutions a lot. I'll mention them when relevant, which is not terribly often.
Statutory Law
Statutory law is the law created by government legislators.
It is typically written as statutes and then later codified.
It is supposed to comply with common law, comply with constitutional law, and respect your rights. When it does not, it will typically be interpreted by a judge in a manner that would make it comply with the law as the judge must assume that the legislators did not intend to break the law or violate the peoples rights.
No legislature can divest any of us of our rights. Nor can they impose limits upon them except with our express consent.
Unfortunately, when you do not know your rights and you do not know what rights are, you become unable to exercise your rights and legislators can start doing just about anything they want.
This is one of the primary problems we have as a people. No one knows their rights, the law, or how to defend themselves. The good news is that law is not that hard to learn.
Private Law
Private law is typically the law of contracts, whether they be bylaws you must agree to in order to work somewhere, administrative laws for governments to run their administrations, international laws created by treaty, or simple contracts between two or more parties.
We will touch a bit on private law as contracts are important and many legal disputes come up over them.
Notices
- I am not a lawyer.
- This is not legal advice.
- Use this knowledge at your own risk and only once you know it to be true.
This is part of my legal self defense series, designed to teach average people how to access the law properly. The next couple of articles will cover where to find the law, how to read it, and some critical points to be aware of when reading the law.
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Be well, @tony.jennings
Aaron Swartz got himself in a lot of trouble for finding out what the Law is without paying for it. No one who practices, enforces or creates law benefits from others learning what the law is, or what others could get arrested for doing. Unless, they a paid to teach it. Are you looking to get paid for teaching law?
Nope. Completely uninterested in getting paid to teach the law.
And I cannot teach the law. I can only provide what I believe to be true about the law. People have to teach themselves the law as no one else can step in to defend them (except licensed lawyers of course).
I completely agree with this statement. It is why law is not taught in school.I want people to know how the law works so that they will be better able to stand on their rights. If more people do so then we might have a chance of turning this country around some day.
Thank you for the work. Keep passing it on.