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The people should fight for the Law as if for their city wall. All human laws are nourished by one, which is divine. - HERACLEITUS OF EPHEsUS, about soo B.c.
What does the word "law" stand for to you? Does it conjure up a picture of a stern-looking judge in a wig, or a slow-footed policeman on his beat? Do you hear famous quotations like "the law's delay" or laws were made to be broken" or even "the law's a ass"? Or do vou think of the law as a human embodiment of Justice, blindfold and holding the scales? Do you regard the law as something which imposes tiresome restrictions on you and should be evaded where possible and avoided always? In short, do you or do you not understand the true function and value of law and its importance to us all?
Law in modern society can be compared to the water from the mains supply which most of us have in our houses. The water is there, "laid on" as we say, ready when we need it, unseen and unthought of when we do not. When we need it, we turn a tap and the water gushes forth. We do not think this wonderful or inquire how it came about because we are too well used to it to give it any consideration. But let the supply fail or the pipes freeze, and then what disorganization in the well-run household! So it is in any community when the machinery of the law fails to answer the call of the citizen in need.
This has happened more than once in recent times. You will find, whenever a dictator or a small clique overthrows a democratic government and seizes power, that the first thing he or they will do is to abolish any impartial system of law and in its place establish courts of justice which will obey their new rulers. If you study history, again you will find that tyranny and law cannot live together. Under a dictatorship, trials if allowed at all are often secret. No attempt is made to discover the facts. The law courts exist merely to carry out the policy or the capricious will of the ruler. There is no appeal. A man may be arrested and carried