The Purposes of Law

In a society such as the United States, the law informs everyday life in a wide variety
of ways and is reflected in numerous branches of law. For example, contract law
regulates agreements to exchange goods, services, or anything else of value, so it
includes everything from buying a bus ticket to trading options on a derivatives
market. Property law defines people’s rights and duties toward tangible property,
including real estate (i.e., real property, such as land or buildings,) and their other
possessions (i.e., personal property, such as clothes, books, vehicles, and so forth),
and intangible property, such as bank accounts and shares of stock. Tort law
provides for compensation when someone or their property is harmed, whether in an
automobile accident or by defamation of character. Those are fields of civil law,
which deals with disputes between individuals. Offenses against a federal, state, or
local community itself are the subject of criminal law, which provides for the
government to punish the offender.

The law serves many purposes. Four principal ones are establishing standards,
maintaining order, resolving disputes, and protecting liberties and rights.

Purposes of Law

As alluded to in the prior section, there are four primary purposes of law:

1. maintaining order
2. establishing standards
3. resolving disputes
4. protecting individual rights and liberties.

These purposes are not separate but entwined.

In a civil society, law is required to maintain order and to establish what personal
behavior and business practices are right or wrong based on a society’s values and
circumstances. For example, the Bill of Rights, which constitutes the first 10
amendments to the Constitution, guarantees a number of individual rights and
liberties including freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
Businesses are held accountable for a range of employee actions; the Department of
Labor alone administers 180 federal laws.

As citizens, we also have an obligation to comply with laws and expectations

regarding the development and enforcement of those laws—points we’ll expand on
in the next section. Law is also, somewhat paradoxically, a requirement for freedom.
To quote former President Ronald Reagan: “Law and freedom must be indivisible
partners. For without law, there can be no freedom, only chaos and disorder; and
without freedom, law is but a cynical veneer for injustice and oppression.” Former
Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo’s statement is an apt summary:
“the final cause of law is the welfare of society.” Thus, it provides the government to
punish the offender. There are many purposes served by the law. Out of these, the
main four are maintaining order, establishing standards, protecting liberties, and
resolving disputes.