Essay
Welcome to
Distributed
Learning
Law
12
The following
activity is an activation assignment. This must be completed online and e-mailed to your instructor
before you may register in DL Law 12. It will be worth 5% of your total course mark. This
assignment should take approximately two hours in total. You may wish to do a rough copy of your
answers on paper, before completing the online version. If you quit the program, it will be submitted
automatically, even if you have not finished, so be sure to complete all sections during the same
time period and then submit.
The following assignment will be marked out of
100.
What is Law?
Law is based on reason
and human nature, and simply reflects what is natural or reasonable. This enables society to function
in a just and effective manner. Therefore law is an expression of both the common good and the
fundamental values of society. Laws should be the same for everyone and at the same time protects
everyone's interests.
Law is part of an evolutionary process. Laws change to reflect the
changing values of a society. Lawmakers take into account the collective will and formulate the best
laws possible.
The common good, however, must be defined by certain criteria and
interests and does not always correspond to the interests of everyone; it is first and foremost the
"good" as seen and defined by certain groups. The law is not above or outside of society;
it is the reflection of society at a given moment in its evolution, the result of the balance of
power between social groups and one of a number of instruments or means used to impose ideas and
defend interests. The law can sometimes be an instrument of discrimination or repression and
sometimes an instrument of protection. Everything depends on the power or alliances a group has when
legislation is prepared, passed by Parliament and implemented. In addition, there is a difference
between what is stated or claimed about law and legislation, and what actually happens.
Assignment
Answer the following questions in paragraph format.
Each question is worth
25 marks.
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