Are laws what we need?

This post is for contemplation. I do not claim that there are better alternatives, nor that I have a solution to the problem.

Now what are laws? They are a system of rules, enforced by a group of people. They describe rights, responsibilities, and protect people.

In fact, most laws come about in an effort to protect the general, 'weaker' public.

Let's look at the way of enforcing laws. A 'criminal' (general term for someone who committed a crime, not necessary anything very bad like murders only) is charged by the court, who will then have to defend himself in lawsuits. There is a judge involved, possibly a panel of jury, lawyers, and a range of different courts one can attend (high court, state court, whatever, depending on how serious a crime is, or appeals, etc)

Fines are a rather effective approach here. But on the other hand, I have to really wonder if it is the best approach. People are doing the 'lawfully right' things here not because it is 'morally right', but because it is 'costly' to do otherwise. For example, littering, causing public disturbance (by perhaps eating on the train, or making noise late at night). We see that in most cases, such laws arise because well, 'suggestions' to do the right things did not work as well as desired (like giving up seats to the elderly and pregnant ladies).

I do not deny the effectiveness of fines though.

But on the other hand, an interesting side effect did come about, sometimes. Some people, rather than take cue from the laws, check to see if there are any possibility of being caught committing a crime, and if no one is around, commits them. I am not talking about the serious crimes like murder, theft. But more of the minor ones, like eg. littering.

I went over to taiwan for a short business trip, and the people there are very considerate in the seats giving. There are no rubbish bins around, but the places are surprisingly clean. I do not see any fines mentioned anywhere, but the people are doing the 'morally right' things. I wonder seriously what the differences in the education system we have with them on such issues, and why they are so effective in raising a generation of considerate people.

The next thing to look at is the legal system. In order to win a lawsuit, other than the requirement that there are compelling evidences that helps a person's case, a good lawyer is essential too, to organize and present the case.

And good lawyers are expensive. Granted, once in a while there will be lawyers who offered to fight for free (or so I heard), but in general, lawyer is a profession, and the better they get, the higher they charge. And so in most cases, only rich people have access to good lawyers.

Which meant that the general public, who are definitely poorer, do not have access to the majority of the good lawyers. Which means that there is a higher chance of losing the cases.

And so the law, which are meant to protect the general public, are on the losing end here.

And of course, there are a lot of cases (especially in the commercial world) where, due to the potential cost of ongoing lawsuits, people are forced to drop the cases and admit defeat. Or risk going bankrupt. An example of the law causing more damage than protection.

But given the existence of laws, are we, as a society, progressing to becoming better people? For every good law abiding citizen, there could be someone out there finding and abusing loopholes in law. I do not know of any, nor seen any locally, but these situations are generally depicted in various movies.

Again, I stress that I cannot deny the usefulness and effectiveness of laws for a great majority of cases. Until we can come up with a better approach to cause everyone to be morally righteous, we will have to make do with a legal system that leave many rooms to ponder about.