Law is one of our favorite topics here in America. We make friends and enemies over our discussions of this bill or that bill. We voice our opinions readily and with passion. We become involved in our political process primarily because it results in laws that affect how we live our lives. This is a good thing, because it draws us into the kind of association with one another that facilitates liberty and good government. But our attitudes toward Law ought to rise from a deeper source than understanding of legislation’s causes and effects. It is our responsibility, as free people, to not only consider the particulars of any bill, but also the roots of our uniquely American system of Law.

The philosophy of John Locke is a main life spring to those roots. Perhaps more than any other single man, Locke influenced the American Founding in a profoundly important way, and the trademark signs of his philosophy are built into our systems of government.

In his theory of Law, in particular, Locke dissected the fundamental characteristics of Law and its effect on human behavior; in so doing he divided Law into three primary and distinctive categories.

1.                  Divine Law. Locke identified this law, which is given by God alone, as "the only true touchstone of moral rectitude."  It is not capable of being amended or altered by men as it is wholly determined by God; because of this it is the ultimate in law, and the standard to which we should strive to hold ourselves. But it is not sufficient for controlling man’s behavior in society, as is evidenced by our constant violation of it. Locke identified several reasons for this: that the Divine Law can be hard to understand, that we fail to properly interpret it, and that the punishments and rewards to be had from it are not always immediately apparent.

2.                  Civil Law. This law, which is made by man in legislatures, should be a prop of Divine Law. Its advantage is that the evidence and consequences of it are immediately apparent, for there are physical rewards and punishments that follow directly from obedience and criminality. Its disadvantage is that it, as the product of man, is subject to human error. Furthermore, not everyone gets the treatment they should under the law, because society’s administrators of justice are not omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. 

3.                  Law of Opinion. This law functions like peer pressure. It is the most palpable mode by which we as people determine what is vice and what is virtue, and it is the most immediate way in which we receive praise and blame for our behavior. It has a powerful effect on us because we are social creatures and cannot tolerate constant scorn. 

Both Civil Law and the Law of Opinion are intended to be anchored to the Divine Law. Locke's idea is that two sources, revelation and reason, make Divine Law available to us. We are to use these sources to enforce the Divine Law through a Civil Law that mirrors the Divine and protects natural law. When we have made it our pursuit to understand and enforce the Divine Law, we become a society that is also capable of supporting the Civil Law through application of a righteous Law of Opinion. 

A good illustration of a robust Law of Opinion can be found in the classic novel Pride and Prejudice. In it we see characters whose behavior is strongly influenced by the censure and praise they receive from society. It is highly uncommon for devious young men like Wickham to run away with foolish girls like Lydia because society issues harsh public censure in response to such things. Similarly, the strong profanity we now hear on school campuses was previously spoken only from the mouths of sailors because the Law of Opinion disallowed the casual use of that language in society.

But the Law of Opinion has been corrupted in America. It has been replaced in our society by a perverse opponent that encourages lawlessness and breeds godlessness. In modern society there is more censure to be incurred from saying that a lifestyle is wrong than there is from doing something immoral or destructive. Increasing our social distress is the dysfunctional Civil Law that emits from out-of-control government. Thus we have a society that has sabotaged two of its own fundamental pillars of society.

We must make a concerted and united effort to reverse these tides, and it will have to start with each of us throwing off our own complacency so that we can start learning and doing!