John E. Young

“ In other words, if it were not for law we should have “a war of all against all,” or a situation in which each man was constantly trying to overreach all the others. Law, therefore, is absolutely essential to the existence of a community, and communities are equally essential to the existence of the race. ”

“ Since such groups are composed of individuals each with a mind and purpose of his own, it is obvious that law is essential to the existence of such groups. In other words, it is self-evident that a group cannot exist without law, intending by law, limitations on individual freedom of action; for if every one were to do just as he pleased, if no one respected the rights of others, we should not have groups of men associated together for mutual help and protection, but a situation in which each man was acting for himself, or a situation in which every man was against every other man. ”

“ In short, if the standard of justice is objective, it can be discovered, and the effects it will produce in any given situation can be stated with approximate accuracy, not only by judges, but by anyone who possesses the necessary skill and will take the trouble to make the necessary investigation. All fair-minded men will, I think, agree that that cannot be done, for if it could, public ideals would not change, and each generation would think the same thoughts as all those which preceded it. And it would be true that law is intended to find a place for everyone and to keep him in it ”

“ The law and the state, therefore, are at one and the same time the tools the community makes to effectuate its ideals, and the things without which it cannot exist.
In short, as will appear more fully later, public ideals are emergent facts incident to the evolution of every community, while the law and the state are the means it employs to effectuate them. While law is made by a community and not by individuals, it is in a sense true that it is something a man carries with him wherever he goes. ”

“ If, therefore, we are to understand what a state can and cannot do, we must remember that while the community is omnipotent, the state created by it can only make such laws as the community has authorized the state to make, and that the state cannot enact laws to effectuate a public ideal unless the community has authorized it to make them. The failure to realize this fact lies at the root of most of the honest criticism to which the courts have been subjected for holding statutes unconstitutional. ”

“ In fact, there is something innate in every normal human being which compels him to become a member of some social group. The elements which make up that something consist in part, at least, of sentiment, passions, physical and psychical wants, and a desire for the society of others, as well as for help and protection. Although that something is composed of these elements, the combination of them is not the same in any two individuals; still, some one or some combination of them dominates every normal human being and compels him to become a member of a social group. ”

“ In other words, the rules of every system of law are continually changing to keep pace with the changes in public ideals, but all that can be said of this change is that it is dominated immediately by the needs of humanity; but who can say who or what dominates the evolution of humanity? ”

“ The law of every community, therefore, should consist of the general rule that it is everyone's duty to do those things, and those only, which the majority approve, and of a more or less complete body of special rules intended to apply the general rule to familiar situations. ”

“ Since a law is made by a community to effectuate its ideals, the problem for every community is, always has been and always will be to determine just what limitations it should impose on individual freedom of action to promote its well-being ”

“ To understand how ideals are evolved, we must remember that the mind of an individual is so constituted that any want, either physical or psychical, that he may feel excites in him a desire to satisfy it ”

“ This was as true when time began as it is to-day. In fact, there never was and never will be a time when social groups were not and will not be absolutely essential, not only to the mental evolution, but to the very existence of the human race. ”

“ In short, with most men, inquiring whether an act is customary is but another way of inquiring whether it meets with their approval, and that was more nearly true a thousand years ago than it is to-day. ”

“ It is common knowledge that there are innumerable laws and systems of law, and that the rules of no two are identical. In fact, every system commands acts to be done that the other systems forbid. It is also common knowledge that we have the laws of grammar, of baseball, of billiards, etc., in addition to juridical law; also, that some of the rules of all the various systems are continually breaking down, and new rules being substituted for them. ”

“ Since it is impossible for a man to satisfy all his wants at the same time, each of them is continually struggling to control his mind, and the opinions he forms as the net result of this struggle are what I have called individual ideals. ”

“ It is common knowledge that a person's ideals change not only with a change in his environment, but from various other causes, the trend of this change, so far as any particular ideal is concerned, depending largely on the relative strength of his desires. As no two persons have exactly the same environment, or place exactly the same value on any given want, so no two have exactly the same ideals. By that is not intended that no two persons have any common ideals. ”

“ If laws are made, that is, if they are not facts in the sense in which the so-called laws of nature are facts, what must be intended when we speak of the purpose of a law is the end its makers had in view when it was enacted. ”

“ When absolutism had done its work, the people tired of their kings and put them under the law; and in that way the modern constitutional state was evolved to do some of the things kings had done, and such other things as the community which made it thought would promote the community's well-being. In other words, a modern constitutional state is a corporation created by a community to administer its affairs. This is true notwithstanding most European states were evolved from the original group through the family, tribe and kingdom ”

“ Although we have no record of a time when there were communities with laws but without a state to enforce them, there was a time not so very long ago when the machinery for enforcing laws was woefully inefficient in so far as the communities from which we are descended are concerned. ”