Title: The Law

Author: Frederic Bastiat

Hi all,

I have been quite intrigued by this book, and hope that you will get some great insight from this book as much as I have.

I must forewarn that some it may sound very upsetting, since it may challenge your views on certain things. I only want to ensure you that I am not writing the review in a way that I support and advocate it, but to bring a proper and fair review of the book.

The manuscript might have been written in the 1850’s yet, some of the content held in the book, you will find, still holds strong relevance to today.

The book goes into the very roots of the origin of the laws we have set for ourselves, and what their initial purpose was. Then, how people have changed the laws in such a way that those laws now deviate from their initially intended purpose.

“…Bastiat believed that all human beings possessed the God-given, natural rights of ‘individuality, liberty and property’. … These ‘three gifts from God precede all human legislation'”…

• Because those three natural rights exist before the laws, laws were created so that people living in a collective would respect each others natural rights, and, should the need arise, defend one that has been wronged by another, by having harmed/damaged/broken the other’s natural right.
• This, he argues, is the purpose for the creation of a law
• Those in government are then solely responsible for enforcing the law, to bring justice, and nothing more

However, this perfect scenario doesn’t exist.

Government, he argues, is playing a larger and larger role than what it should, getting more powerful to do things for people and rule over them. In making this possible, they are granted the power to make/amend the law.

• By making government more powerful, and having them bring in social programs so they can deliver those services to us, they need money.
• So, they collect taxes (in the book referred to “legal plunder”) because they set the legislation, it becomes legal
• He argues that the way Government would justify introducing/amending legislation, that would permit it to perform ‘legal plunder’ is for two reasons, namely 1) greed, or 2) misconceived philanthropy.

1. Greed

When people have lost faith in the legal system they may choose to study the system, and then to become a part of the system, so they may enrich themselves, at the cost of other people’s suffering. Otherwise, it would be to obtain power, and by such means enrich themselves, since the legal system was already corrupted.

2. Philanthropy

Another reason why people may wish to bring about changes in legislation (which could deviate from the originating three principles) would be to help the majority, when it means fewer would be directly negatively impacted by this (ie. good for human kind in general). Thus, by this means they try and justify their legal plunder actions.

Thus, the argument of the book is that government is good as long it remains within the sphere of protecting our three natural rights, and not going beyond that sphere to gain more power and amend legislation to have a means to legalize plunder for the wrong reasons.

Summary:

I was quite shaken by such a written work, since it is a challenge to what I knew the system to be (very high level only). It introduces classic patterns that were true back then and still are now (that if you are wronged by the system, you might try and join the system so you can partake in legal plunder). The book is something really insightful for anyone to get to know, regardless of which profession you wish to enter, since this is about the general law. The book thus gets a rating of 4,8/5

“The further you look back into the past, the further you will be able to see into the future” – Winston Churchill

Learn as much as you can, and stay safe!