Text I (A) Law

The English word 'law' refers to limits upon various forms of behavior. Some laws are descriptive: they simply describe how people, or even natu­ral phenomena, usually behave. An example is the rather consistent law of gravity; another is the less consistent laws of economics. Other laws are prescriptive — they prescribe how people ought to behave. For example, the speed limits imposed upon drivers that prescribe how fast we should drive. They rarely describe how fast we actually do drive, of course.

In all societies, relations between people are regulated by prescriptive laws. Some of them are customs — that is, informal rules of social and moral behavior. Some are rules we accept if we belong to particular social insti­tutions, such as religious, educational and cultural groups. And some are precise laws made by nations and enforced against all citizens within their power.

Customs need not to be made by governments, and they need not be written down. We learn how we are expected to behave in society through the instruction of family and teachers, the advice of friends, and our expe­riences in dealing with strangers. Sometimes, we can break these rules with­out suffering any penalty. But if we continually break the rules, or break a very important one, other members of society may ridicule us, act violently toward us or refuse to have anything to do with us. The ways in which people talk, eat and drink, work, and relax together are usually called cus­toms.