ESSAY

INTRO

  • law is “the body of principles recognised and applied by the state in the administration of justice” - john salmond

  • society is a collective of diverse individuals and groups , coexisting and interacting within a community

  • pluralism is a form of society in which the members of minority groups maintain their independent cultural traditions

  • assimilation is where individuals/ groups from one culture adopt the norms, values, language and behaviours of a dominant or majority culture.

  • BINGHAM- the law influences society in several ways: settling disputes ,ensuring a common good, protecting people from harm and persuading people to do the right thing

  • law is also influenced by the society that it comes from. society also shapes law through protest and civil disobedience. the media also shapes law and society through mora panics and sensationalism. Politics also shapes society through its approach to law.

PARAGRAPH 1 - SOCIAL CONTROL

  • one of the key ones law plays in society is social control

  • idea that there must be some form of guiding hand in society to ensure society doesn’t fall to chaos

  • social control can be either informal or formal. Informal - it occurs through the family, a. peer group, a local community or societal group. Formal- it occurs through specific social agencies which have the role of maintaining order in society, e.g the criminal justice system (police, judiciary etc/)

  • roscoe pounds believed that as the influence of traditional forms of social control (like religion) were declining, law is best placed to provide social control.

  • pound felt that law could regulate behaviour to promote the general good in society and that the law has the legitimacy to do this as it has state backing

  • examples where law provides social control : s444 education act 1966, s84 road traffic regulation act 1984, s5 of road traffic act 1998

  • these laws controls society in small ways to ensure common good by… (explain what those laws do

PARAGRAPH 2 MORAL PANIC

  • jock young and stanley cohen (folk devils and moral panics 1972) states that the media will create a moral panic that is portrayed to the public as a ‘threat to societal values and interests.’ This way, society can blame its problems on a particular section of society.

  • media do this for their own benefit (often financial or political) with intention of outraging public as this will drive more engagement, this is sensationalism

  • this can lead to strict laws being passed that cause issues

  • e.g , the dangerous dogs act 1991, tabloid newspapers talking about attacks on children from pit bull terriers (calling them “devil dogs”), led to rushed piece of legislation

  • e.g knife crime , constantly in the news in 2008, media had linked it to murder of Damilola Taylor and reported knife crime was an inner city problem predominantly committed by black and asian teenagers

  • media exaggerated and prime minister responded by introducing tougher knife laws and lowered the age that a person could be prosecuted of a knife to 16.

PARAGRAPH 3 SOCIETY SHAPING LAW

  • society shapes the law through protests, activism, public pressure or cultural shifts which bring about legal change

  • e.g lgbtq movement : the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts between consenting men over 2q, shows how growing social acceptance pushed Parliament to modernise outdated. Later reforms like the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 reflected society’s shift towards full equality, and in turn these laws helped reinforce and normalise LGBTQ+ inclusion within society.

  • e.g gina martin upskirting campaign :The Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019, which made upskirting a specific criminal offence in England and Wales, was introduced after Gina Martin’s public campaign highlighted a gap in the law and pushed society’s concerns about women’s safety onto the legislative agenda.

PARAGRAPH 4: BALANCING INTERESTS

  • another important way law controls society is through balancing interests

  • jhering defines interests as ‘principles identified by individuals and/or states as being fundamental importance’

  • the law must ensure that the interests of all members of society are balanced

  • in a pluralist society groups do not have to give up their beliefs and practices to become part of wider society, yet undoubtedly this groups will have different interests . whilst no group is considered more powerful than others, institutional mechanisms may prevent their interests being represented

  • e.g in tort , for personal injury negligence claims there is a balance to be figured out between the victim and the defendant- the mechanism that the court uses to balance personal injury is through damages .

  • e,g in contract, CRA 2015 balances the interests of traders and consumers. it recognises the power that traders have in law and seeks to balance the scales by giving consumers more rights.