Letter of the Law or Spirit of the Law

Recently, a major world religious leader was issued a correction by several of his followers for not being specific enough in his declarations. He felt he was following the spirit of the law. Because this institution has clearly delineated laws or rules concerning belief and doctrine, those that supported the correction felt he srayed too far from their church's teaching, and felt justified in issuing it.

I bring this up because we all have laws which we are expected to live by, at least on a civil level. Do we follow the letter of the law or the spirit of the law? Share your thoughts

That depends on the arbitor. As an individual, I don't think we make laws. Those come about with two or more people trying to co-exist. And whenever we have two or more people, there is the dynamic power relationship. In your example, the leader may have had power to declare, but a contingent of the people did not agree

Letter of the law is rough for anyone to follow all the time. I think we all violate the letter of the law. This is also how lawyers earn their living. Finding the loopholes to dance through the letter of the law. I will give some other examples.

A friend of mine wanted to get a mustache and goatee while we were in the Navy. He went to medical and got a permanently approved partial no shave request for his chin. So he got it approved because there was no law against it. When the Chiefs and Officers tried to get him for violating the law, they could not. Because there was a loop hole. So they had to later follow up and change the letter of the law to say no partial no shave requests will be authorized. Just to show we all try to squeeze through the letter of the law at times.

As for spirit or intent of the law. This is where I usually fall for my law abiding habits. However, the flaw with this is that each of us has our own interpretation of what that spirit or intent is.

For example, as law enforcement, I only give speeding tickets if I feel that someone is being reckless and endangering the people around the driver. I feel that the intent of having this law is for the safety of the public. Others feel the reason for this law is to get money into the system to subsidize the department/county/state revenue. They give usually a quota amount of tickets each month. There is also that myth that I can go five over the speed limit and not get a ticket. That is definitely spirit of the law in practice. However, when that police officer pulls you over, it is because they used the letter of the law.

Im a big spirit of the law guy; I break laws all the time, we all do. But, when the intention of the law is to keep others safe and or prevent social harm then we should probably follow it.....just sayin........

Much Respect, Peace, and Love,
Kobos

I definitely think it is the spirit of the law that matters. The only problem with that is the fact that we, as citizens, aren't always privy to the intentions of the people that wrote the laws. It can be difficult to identify just what the "spirit of the law" actually is.

jzen wrote: Recently, a major world religious leader was issued a correction by several of his followers for not being specific enough in his declarations. He felt he was following the spirit of the law. Because this institution has clearly delineated laws or rules concerning belief and doctrine, those that supported the correction felt he srayed too far from their church's teaching, and felt justified in issuing it.

I bring this up because we all have laws which we are expected to live by, at least on a civil level. Do we follow the letter of the law or the spirit of the law? Share your thoughts

I subscribe to the old I will do as I like and think about others.
These two help each other and also I have a very many personal focus es.. so in all that I just adjust as I live. I don't break the law. If I did I would be subject to them. I live and love my choice ... wisely . Small example
I'm an off grid er mentality. I want chickens corn cows things as such . Can't do that in the city. Rather than fight ... we moved to a place and found ... read that... we looked, seeked and found a area that can support my beliefs and practice. Crude but I think you can understand the use right ? I can personally get upset all day at what the law and "everybody" is doing. Not my cup of tea , instead , I created and thought of a way to do so. So , letter of the law I keep to say I'm harmony with my land and my home I keep on my terms. Possible . Terry possible . For every one . Find a way... seek! I encourage . Or the opposite you can struggle and fight and use till you are spent or agricated to the point where your focus was lost.
My own opinion ...
Laws should be kept . But I voted for those who are passing em so if I disagree I vote them out . Takes a bit of time and effort but totally worth it ! Hope this is a small example of another opertunity to see a difrent , not wrong , approach !

The letter of the law are only expressions to help capture and define the spirit.

If the spirit of the law is public safety and letter of the law is 70mph speed limit, 70 is just a theoretical number people came up with to express their concern for public safety on the highway. You can go less than 70 and hit someone. You can go exactly 70 and hit someone (or be hit by someone). And you can go 70mph with your eyes closed, while driving drunk, while on a cell phone, while arguing with your kid in the back seat, etc. If you drive 71 mph you're not automatically going to wreck, nor are you suddenly an unsafe driver. When I've driven 90+ in fact I'm usually paying way more attention to my safety and that of others because at higher speeds there's less room for error.

The law and the spirit are "one". If we all drove cars with the only instruction being to "drive safely" there would be chaos because everyone's idea of safety would have a different standard. The letter of the law polices those individual standards and creates a measuring stick. In the bible, Paul talks about the letter of the law as a school master to teach us about love. But if all you said was "love" each other, people wouldn't know what that meant. Love is defined through love's expressions. What if the law of gravity never made anything fall? It wouldn't be much of a law if it didn't. Therefore, if there is a shared standard we should try to abide by it but it doesn't make you a bad person if your interpretation of the law honestly leads you to a different expression of the law's heart/intent.

You can go exactly 70 and hit someone (or be hit by someone). And you can go 70mph with your eyes closed, while driving drunk, while on a cell phone, while arguing with your kid in the back seat, etc. If you drive 71 mph you're not automatically going to wreck, nor are you suddenly an unsafe driver. When I've driven 90+ in fact I'm usually paying way more attention to my safety and that of others because at higher speeds there's less room for error.

Road safety officials would have you believe that "70" is not an arbitrary number, but a carefully calculated figure based on road condition, use of the area, traffic volume, and crash survivability (mostly for pedestrians, not you)


It's....partially true.

the speed limit is also a reaction to

How Fun the Road is (ie - has been used by hoons, so they drop the speed limit for "safety", plus it means they can give the hoons bigger penalities)
Making Money (Identical roads could have a 100, an 80, or even a 60 speed limit, with the lower limit reflecting a more heavily used area where a cop with a speed camera can sit and rack up $$$ for the state coffers)

Speed limits are set by people, and people are great at dumbass knee jerk reactions. A perfectly safe road for 20 years can suddenly have a fatality because of an asshole, so the speed limit gets dropped based on a very limited (but dramatic and scary!) bit of data.

Friggin' Spiders Georg....


(and no polly wants to be the one who said "Huh, maybe we can increase all speed limits by 10kph - what with how modern cars all have much better safety systems, tyres, etc" and then get their name attached to every road death that happens in the next 50 years that someone says "if only they were going slower" )



As for the rest of the quote - you might not be speeding but (in most Australian states) we have laws for negligent driving, reckless driving, driving under the influence (of alcohol in this instance), and distracted driving.

You might not have been speeding, but you'll still cough up some money and lose your license



Anyway, Traffic laws are one of those ones I obey the Letter of the Law, whether I agree with it or not, because they are one of the favourite things for our state cops to enforce and issue fines for, so it's really more of a financial decision than it is a moral one.


My *belief* when approached by "Law Enforcement" (Whether Feds, State cops, random idiots with clipboards and hi vis vests, or anyone else who has a Policy and is persuaded I need to share their faith in it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjlr3vfU300




(Making Laws 101:

What can we make people afraid of enough that they'll let us legislate it?
How can we monetize that? )

I'm legally obligated not to comment on the validity of any law here where I am a party involved in the enforcement of said laws, namely the land colloquially known as "The nanny state".

I can tell you that traffic laws are routinely enforced because they are "easy" in that they are either strict liability or absolute liability - you don't even need to know you broke the law and it doesn't matter what you believed at the time, if you break it you pay for it. Many criminal laws involve establishing mens rea in the perpetrator which is often difficult - hence lengthy and costly legal battles over those crimes.

Contrary to popular belief, law enforcement has the power of "discretion" (where I am at least) and can choose not to prosecute minor crimes (such as traffic violations). So, by the letter of the law, police are empowered to adhere to the spirit of the law except in serious cases (which really, you wouldn't anyway).

Occupation aside, the spirit of a system of laws is to provide a common framework for a society to ensure (relatively) peaceful and safe co-existence. Let us not forget that laws are written by mankind with all the inevitable flaws that come with that. After all, once upon a time the letter of the law permitted slavery and prohibited women from voting. Just because it is written does not make it just and sometimes we need to reconcile our actions with a 'higher law'.

I believe that Life itself has no Black and White answer to questions such as this. Both are important....and both are not so important at all.

I believe that we should judge our actions and choices based on the situation we find ourselves in and the outcome we desire in the end.

Laws are temporary aspects that can be changed and therefore the letter of the law is invalid. However the spirit of the law can be exploited and used for evil intentions. Therefor we must really ask ourselves....

What kind of world do you wish to live in?

And when you find that answer. Act upon a direction that leads towards the answer you gave.

Most will find that the answer will for better or worse align with a vast majority of laws we already live by. So all we need do now is to do our best.