Law

« Glossary Index

Human or societal Law is defined as a system that regulates and and attempts to regulate that individuals within a community adhere to the will of a group, society or state. Universal laws are rules or patterns that can be applied to everything in the Universe.

Physical and Spiritual ‘Law’ are universal laws used to define a set of principles outside of societal control. Examples are the Law of Gravity in science, or the Law of Attraction (what you give, you get) in spiritual consciousness.

Though the word ‘law’ is used for both, they really are significantly different. In LISN the main use of the word ‘law’ is in the sense of universal law and particularly spiritual laws. ‘Societal Law’ and ‘Universal Law’ will be the phrases used to differentiate.

Universal Law

Universal Laws are the subject of contention, because of the element of mystery in life.

Even the basic physical laws of gravity, light and matter have gray areas at the fringes.

Spiritual laws even more so, as there are variations in definition and acceptance. Just think of the universal law of human rights. The UN has defined them, but different groups of people interpret and act on them in various ways. So it also is with the universal law of love. Everyone may agree that peace, love and compassion are good and to be followed, but which society has done so?

What is worth noting is that the universal laws are based on human intelligence, kindness, evolution and emerging consciousness. Even if one does not agree with a particular universal law such as the Golden Rule, or the Second Law of Thermodynamics, following such a rule cannot cause harm. This is not the case with Societal Law.

Societal Law

Criminal law deals with behavior that is considered harmful to social order and deals out punishment to the ‘guilty party’ in the form of imprisonment, fines or even death. The motives for such punishment is that the punishment or threat will change the behavior of the offender and/or the likelihood of other potential offenders. This is not scientifically supported, in fact:

Wright interviewed 105 burglars and 86 armed robbers — all people that Smith connected him to. These were people who were actively breaking the law and, at the time, getting away with it. They were not informants for the police or prisoners who had been caught.

Whether it’s prison itself, longer prison sentences, or sending more people to prison for smaller crimes, these prescribed consequences are usually predicated on the idea that a would-be criminal will consider them and then think twice: “Nope, I’m not going to do this,” they’ll rationally decide.” I don’t want that to happen to me.”

Unfortunately, the work of Wright and Smith suggests that real people don’t often make that kind of careful deliberation before they rob somebody, and subsequent decades’ worth of research on the effects of deterrence-based punishments — including mandatory sentencing and the death penalty — have failed to prove that they do anything to reduce crime.

That doesn’t mean criminals aren’t thinking, though.  Amid pressing imperatives like feeding a drug habit, earning the respect of peers, or just meeting everyday expenses, robbery and burglary were, for them, simply solutions.”

Civil law (not to be confused with civil law jurisdictions above) deals with the resolution of lawsuits (disputes) between individuals or organizations and raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, and justice.

Full Glossary Index