What gives laws their most legitimacy? The legislature or the society they are past to control?

[kvnchrist]

Do the laws made to control the activities of society depend on that societies readiness to except those laws and if they are and society rejects those laws. Are they still valid since the jury that will convict or acquit those breaking these laws will be the peers of those doing the breaking?

 

(One example of this was prohibition.)

[JimboUK]

Rules and laws that people find unjust tend to be ignored or circumvented, prohibition being one, rightly or wrongly copyright infringement is another and the Official Secrets Act here in the UK is one that it's damn near impossible to get a conviction on because juries repeatedly refuse to convict those charged. Juries are hugely important in any decent society, they keep the law under the control of the people, those who argue that juries cost too much or make too many mistakes because of their lack of knowledge fail to understand the importance of not giving the state the final say.

[kvnchrist]

Sometimes I think, sometimes it runs deeper than that. There are a few out there who fear that juries will return verdicts based on their own values instead of the values that these observers espouse. I think sometimes it's easier to find an activist judge who would enforce others's agendas than have 12 jury members with the same ideology.

[JimboUK]

That's the beauty of it, those 12 men and women are far more likely to reflect the peoples values than some judge is, especially here in the UK where judges seem to be recruited from the local psychiatric hospital.