Rousseau in his book The Contract Social argues that the individual finds his true being and freedom only in submission to the “general will” of the community. In this desired social contract, everyone will be free because they all forfeit the same number of rights and impose the same duties on all.
The fundamental purpose of the rule of law is to establish a socially acceptable and consistent bottom line of human behavior. It acts as a deterrent and a basis for criminal accountability and punishment, it lays out our civil rights and obligations, offers an equitable remedy for disputes, and installs social order and a sense of security.
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The rule of law is necessary in society for the following main reasons:
- To avoid abuse of power by the authorities
- To defend the weakest groups from the more powerful
- To establish rules for all ways of interaction among the members of a community
- To avoid any person or any group claiming to be above the law
- To ensure the natural principles of equality, freedom, and fraternity
The best way to ensure the rule of law is through a democratic system where the citizen chooses their representatives to establish the rules of the community through the elaboration of a Constitution which includes the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee the rights to the people in it.
The most important principle to achieve the rule of law is the division of powers between the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. Where the Legislative makes the rules, the judiciary applies the rules and the Executive executes the rules. It is very difficult to achieve the rule of law without this basic principle.
Unfortunately, the concept rule of law isn't or hasn’t been the same depending on the customs of each society or the historical context, we can enumerate many examples:
- In United States allowed slavery until its abolition in 1863 under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln
- Women earned the right to vote in Spain in 1933 as a result of legal changes made during the Second Spanish Republic
- The 14th Amendment, approved by Congress in 1866 and ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including former slaves, and guaranteed “equal protection of the laws” to all citizens.
- Work-Life Balance and Child Labor In the 18th century, women had fewer rights, and most of their earnings by law had to be given to their fathers or husbands. Many factory owners preferred to hire women because they were cheaper employees. Children were a large part of the workforce during the 1700s as well.
- Unfortunately, the rule of law is different depending on the countries and the quality of its democracies and has been different
Those examples reflect the fact that the law is established by people, and obviously, they are influenced by the customs and beliefs of each specific time, therefore to we can never say that we have achieved the pure concept of the rule of the law; to get nearer that pure concept along the time, we will always special people with higher ethical and moral principles, at the same time with the necessary strength to fight for their Believes as the main character of the movie “To kill a Mockingbird” Atticus Finch.
Movies are not only entertainment, but also sometimes they are made with purpose, with a message to translate to society to push for changes that the participants in the movies, producers, directors, and actors… want to introduce based on their moral beliefs.
At the time of its release in 1962, won critical acclaim Gregory Peck won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Atticus Finch. Horton Foote who wrote the screenplay, also won an Oscar, The film was based on Harper's Knee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Some film critics suggest that the movie was one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made… powerfully resonant, in present America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving responsible parenthood. Certainly, the film withstands the test of time, even in the twenty-first century.
In the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird” the exponent of those beliefs is Atticus and his behavior
Atticus is a widower and a small-town Alabama lawyer practicing in the 1930s, that struggles to instill in his two children a sense of tolerance, integrity, and justice. Finch's reputation as a highly moral lawyer stems from his representation of Tom Robison a black man accused of beating and raping a white woman.
Atticus by putting on an earnest defence in Tom Robinson's case, was breaking the rules of his racially segregated society, He was a white man and a respected member of his community but he was courageous in the face of the community prejudice.
The film targeted a white audience at the dawn of the modern civil rights era. It conveys the message that moral and ethical lawyers follow the rule of law, even when they represent unpopular clients. This was an important message, especially for southern audiences. Massive resistance to desegregation was still the rule in most southern states. Thus, To Kill a Mockingbird was an appeal to decent, moral white Americans to accept racial integration.
They have been along the history of cinema many movies have tried to translate to society those ethical principles to show the importance of getting closer to the pure significance of the rule of law showing tremendous injustices to make people reflect on them, still today unfortunately the message has to be send:
- Hidden figures: How smart scientific women where not taken into account within a man's scientific community because they were black and women.
- Green book: The relation between a rich and intelligent black man and an Italian medium-class mana
Nowadays unfortunately there are many cases in which we could say that there is no rule of law although we are talking about countries with a solid democracy, some examples would be as follows:
- The discrimination of homosexuals
- The way refugees are treated
- How migrants are treated
- Still we could say there is discrimination concerning women
- The discrimination by religion
We always need people like Atticus and the people involved in making the movie to push society in search of the fulfillment of the most important principles we mentioned at the beginning: Equability, Freedom, and Fraternity.
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