Law and Justice
Laws are rules about how to behave. Justice is about fairness; this includes rewarding the good and punishing the bad. In the UK laws are made by Parliament and justice is given by the courts.
Law and justice are not always the same and you can see this in the differences between sins and crimes.
Sins are acts that go against God’s will. These are not necessarily crimes but they will often be unjust. For instance it would be a sin for a millionaire not to give any of their money to charity.
A crime is an act that breaks the law of the land and which will be punished by the state. Crimes are often sins as well but they don’t have to be e.g. if a state has immoral laws (like segregation laws in America keeping white and black apart) then to disobey them would be a crime but not a sin.
Law and justice are not always the same and you can see this in the differences between sins and crimes.
Sins are acts that go against God’s will. These are not necessarily crimes but they will often be unjust. For instance it would be a sin for a millionaire not to give any of their money to charity.
A crime is an act that breaks the law of the land and which will be punished by the state. Crimes are often sins as well but they don’t have to be e.g. if a state has immoral laws (like segregation laws in America keeping white and black apart) then to disobey them would be a crime but not a sin.
Why do we need laws?
Thomas Aquinas
- We need laws because humans live in groups and in groups you need rules to organise people’s behaviour and to protect the weak from the strong.
- Society needs laws so that people know what sort of behaviour to expect from each other and so that they can be protected from violence.
- There needs to be a connection between law and justice because if laws are unjust then people will feel it is right to break the law and they may start to think that all laws are unjust.
Thomas Aquinas said that an unjust law is not a proper law.
How are laws made in the UK?
1. The First Reading: The proposed law is written into a document called a Bill, which is introduced and debated in the House of Commons.
2. The Second Reading: The Bill is debated a second time in Parliament.
3. The Third Reading: After being gone through in detail by a committee the Bill is debated a third time and a vote is taken. If the vote in the House of Commons is in favour of the Bill it gets passed into the House of Lords for discussion.
4. The House of Lords debate the Bill and vote.
5. The Royal Assent: if the Bill is passed by the House of Lords it goes to the Queen who gives it the Royal Assent.
6. Act of Parliament: the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament and it is now a law.