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The importance of the law
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What kind of Lawyer do you want to be?
Law is in place as a basis of a type of rule to govern the behaviour between people, offering a structure for society to ensure the protection of the rights of every individual. The absence of the law in place there would be an absence of order and stability in the society. With the development of a complex legal system, the law is not only rules, but is embedded with an akin of moral concepts in the society. On the other hand, lawyers are professions who ‘exercise their power in court by manipulating the thoughts and opinions of others through the skilful use of language’. I see lawyers as an exponent in upholding justice in society: as to how rights should be respected and protected, how the moral perceptions are ingrained and manifested through law. What aspires me to become a criminal lawyer is my receptivity to the juxtaposed relationship of moral and law. I agree that criminal law aids the establishment of ‘a moral imperative in civilized society’, enhancing the moral development in society through the
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Trials in camera is allowed in some classes of cases, so that the victims are not subjected to the daunting and stressful environment. YJEA 1999 provides the need for special protection for a child as complainant or witness, such as giving evidence in CCTV. Moreover, Children and Young Persons Act 1933 excludes the public from youth courts, and control the variety of representative of newspapers. It also provides that for ‘any conduct contrary to decency or morality’, the court will have discretion to order a closed trial if the witness/victim is a child. With regards to all of the above examples, it still comes well with the requirement in Article 6. This is a step towards the protection of the privacy of children by avoiding court appearance, and at the same time balancing the idea of an open trial where justice can be seen to be
McOskar Enterprises, Inc. owns and manages a health and fitness center identified as “Curves for Women”. Tammey J. Anderson, the complainant, joined Curves on April 2, 2003. As part of the joining process Anderson signed a release of liability agreement. This agreement released Curves from any liabilities related to injuries that might be sustained by contributing in any activities or through the use of equipment. The agreement also stated that participants agreed to all risks of death or injury that could occur, Anderson read and signed the agreement of terms with Curves. After completing the liability agreement, Anderson began working out under the observation of a Curves’ trainer using the machines within the facility. During the workout Anderson notified the trainer that she began to feel pain in her neck, shoulder and arm, but finished her workout. She continued to feel the pain when she got home and pursued medical attention. As part of her prescribed medical treatment she was sent for a course a physical therapy. In June 2003 Anderson underwent a cervical discectomy, a procedure used to treat nerve or spinal cord compression. After her procedure Anderson sued Curves, claiming negligent acts during her workout. Anderson v. McOskar Enterprises, Inc., 712 NW 2d 796 (Minn. 2006).
Criminal law attempts to balance the rights of individuals to freedom from interference with person or property, and society’s need for order. Procedural matters, the rights of citizens and powers of the state, specific offences and defences, and punishment and compensation are some of the ways society and the criminal justice system interact.
Legal consciousness refers to how people’s different conceptions of law determine whether they mobilize or resist the law (SOC216, Jan. 26). Susan S. Silbey and Patricia Ewick disclose three narratives of how people perceive the law: before the law, with the law and up against the law (2000). Individuals who are before the law fundamentally treat legality as an objective realm that is removed from their ordinary social lives (Silbey and Ewick 2000). They believe that the law is a hierarchical classification of rules that is both majestic and impartial (Silbey and Ewick 2000). In regards to ‘with the law’, legality is described and played as a game, in which existing rules can be arrayed accordingly and new rules can be invented in order to serve the individual’s interests (Silbey and Ewick 2000). Legality is described as a “terrain for tactical encounters” where
Nearly every aspect of law enforcement has a court decision that governs criteria. Most court rulings are the result of civil lawsuit towards a police officer and agency. However, currently, there is no law that mandates law enforcement driver training. When it comes to firearms, negligence by officers has resulted in a multitude of court rulings. Popow v. City of Margate, 1979, is a particularly interesting case that outlines failed firearms training by an agency. In this case, an officer chasing a suspect during a foot pursuit fired at the suspect, striking and killing an innocent bystander (Justia.com, 2017). The court ruled that the agency was “grossly negligent” of “failure to train” (Justia.com, 2017). As a result, nearly every agency requires annual firearms training and has written policy concerning the same. Officers must show proficiency in firearms use every year to maintain their certification. Many states even impose fines on officers for
In his book on ?The Behavior of Law? Donald Black attempts to describe and explain the conduct of law as a social phenomenon. His theory of law does not consider the purpose, value, impact of law, neither proposes any kind of solutions, guidance or judgment; it plainly ponders on the behavior of law. The author grounds his theory purely on sociology and excludes the psychology of the individual from his assumptions on the behavior of law (Black 7). The theory of law comes to the same outcome as other theories scrutinizing the legal environment, such as deprivation theory or criminal theory; however, the former concentrates on the patterns of behavior of law, not involving the motivation of an individual as such. In this respect, Black?s theory is blind for social life, which is beyond the behavior of law.
Law and Society, Ninth Edition, by Steven Vago. Published by Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc
The individuals within our society have allowed the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflicts with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, reside in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order. The governance of our present day public and social order co-exist within the present day individual. Attempts to recognize the essentiality of equality in hopes of achieving an imaginable notion of structure and order, has led evidence-based practitioners such as Herbert Packer to approach crime and the criminal justice system through due process and crime control. A system where packers believed in which ones rights are not to be infringed, defrauded or abused was to be considered to be the ideal for procedural fairness.
To study law is a privilege and a gift that assists humans in diminishing the ignorance surrounding the legal system. Though it is a privilege and a gift, one individual in particular highlights the faults, he feels, are embedded within the system. This individual is a professor of criminology at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo (Oslo, 2008) named Nils Christie. His insight regarding the issues with the legal system will be discussed in depth throughout this paper, using his article entitled Conflicts as Property (Christie, 1977). Through reading this article, one could extrapolate, that the legal system essentially steals the conflicts from the people and uses them as property for the state. Christie’s argument holds a great amount
In every society around the world, the law is affecting everyone since it shapes the behavior and sense of right and wrong for every citizen in society. Laws are meant to control a society’s behavior by outlining the accepted forms of conduct. The law is designed as a neutral aspect existent to solve society’s problems, a system specially designed to provide people with peace and order. The legal system runs more efficiently when people understand the laws they are intended to follow along with their legal rights and responsibilities.
The usual perception of law to most individuals is a world in which many factors and external beings control a fixed system and its failure to inhabit equality and justice. The understanding and meanings of law have different definitions on social relations which explains why the common thought in mind when asked about the law is in regards to a speeding ticket or encounters with the law enforcement. However, people perceive the law differently based on their everyday life and how it effects their life in the long-run. The way people understand and experience legal authority is shown by how they engage, avoid or resist the law and legal meanings. This is catorterized as the study of legal consciousness.
All three articles examined have created a distinct analysis by which we can examine the separation of law and ethics in our society. First, the article by Sheppard examines issues pertaining to the linkages between ethics, law and justice and how society goes about enshrining these laws in a manner that ensures continuity in the face of constant change. This article demonstrates a simple but effective illustration of how ethics, law and justice is developed. First, the individual creates the conduct by which they go about living their lif...
The Law today is a summary of various principles from around the world from the past and the present. Early practises of law were the foundation of the law that we know and abide by today. These practises were referred to as the Classical school. Over time however, different criminologist have altered and greatly improved the early, incomplete ideas and made them more complete and practical to more modern times. This newer version is referred to as the Positivist school. This rapid change from the classical to the positivist perspective was due to the change and growth of civilization. Even though one perspective came from another, they are still different in many ways and it is evident when relating them to section 462.37, Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime, and section 810, Sureties to keep the Peace. The Classical School of criminology’s time of dominance was between 1700 and 1800. Its conception of deviance was that deviance was a violation of the social contract. Classical theorists believed that all individuals were rational actors and they were able to act upon their own free will. A person chose to commit crimes because of greed and because they were evil. The primary instrument that could be used in regards to the classical school to control crime was to create “criminal sanctions that instil fear of punishment in those contemplating criminal acts” (Gabor 154). Classical school theorists believed the best defence was a good offence and therefore they wanted to instil so much fear into people about what would happen to them if they were to commit a crime that even those who were only thinking of committing a crime were impacted greatly. The classical school individuals operated entirely on free will and it was their ...
Law is a tool in society as it helps to maintain social control, promoting social justice. The way law functions in society and its social institution provide a mechanism for solutions. There are many different theories of the function of law in relation to society in considering the insight they bring to different socio-legal and criminological problems. In the discussion of law’s role in social theory, Leon Petrażycki and Eugen Ehrlich share similar beliefs in the jurisprudence of society. They focused their work on the experience of individuals in establishing meaning in their legal relations with others based on the question of what it means to be a participant in law. Jürgen Habermas presents a relationship between law and morality. From a certain standpoint, law is a key steering mechanism in society as it plays an educational role in promoting conducts, a mean of communication and it
Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law since by doing so; it discourages him from committing crime again while making him or her pay for their crimes. Retribution does not mean inflicting physical punishment by incarceration only, but it also may include things like rehabilitation and financial retribution among other things. The last purpose of criminal law is to protect the community from criminals. Criminal law acts as the means through which the society protects itself from those who are harmful or dangerous to it. This is achieved through sentences meant to act as a way of deterring the offender from repeating the same crime in the future.
The criminal law takes immense part in society, including the following functions: to deter people from acts that harms others or society. Furthermore, people who do not follow the rules that are being set by the authority, they will be punished. The criminal law is there to guidance the general public on the manners of behaviour, which are seen acceptable by society. (Jonathan Herring; criminal law, page 4 eighth edition)