The Impact of Law on Society

This assignment discusses the significance of law in a country, highlighting how it promotes equality, reduces corruption, and provides a platform for redressal of grievances. It also touches upon the drawbacks of law, including the rise of corruption and dishonest judgments. The study concludes that law considers every citizen equally, with some exceptions.

“We are all
equal before the law”

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Law is a body of rules and regulations being created by the social or government
institutions to regulate the behaviour. In simple words Law is a system that regulates and ensures
that the people or a community will obey and follow to the will of the state. Law is equally
applicable to each and every citizen of a country abide by the state and the constitution. This
report will highlight the important components of UK legal system and will justify the statement-
“We are all equal before the Law”.
MAIN BODY
UK legal system is based on four principal sources namely- Legislation, Common law,
European Union Law and the European Convention on Human Rights. There is no single series
of documents or body that contains the entire law of UK. The Law is being applicable on
distribution of four countries, each having their own Jurisdiction and court system with legal
profession, which are England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The four principals of
UK legal system are explained below-
Legislation- Legislation is a law created by the legislature. It is dependent on the acts of
parliament, which is known as principal legislature. The UK parliament is based in London and
has power to pass and enforce laws that applies in four countries.
Common Law- The legal system of England and Wales is a common law for all the four
countries in it, so every decision by the court turns to be a part of the law.
European Union Law- UK is a member of European Union hence the European Union take the
precedence over the UK law.
The European Convention on Human Rights- As being the member of the council of Europe,
UK is a signatory to European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Human Rights Act

1998, which came into effect in October 2000 enables all the courts in the UK to protect the
rights identified in ECHR(Ramcharan, 2017).
The UK law is classified into two categories the civil law and the criminal law. The
matters of the Civil offence are being handled by the County Court and High Court as according
to the amount of the case. The criminal matters of the individual are being investigated by the
police and if the police confirms him guilty, then the matter is sent to the Crown Prosecution
Service who conducts the further precedence of the case. The minor matters such as speeding
and theft are being managed by the Magistrates' Courts which are situated in many towns of
England and Wales and these courts does not require any legal qualifications and are advised by
a clerk who is a qualified lawyer. The serious offences such as murder and rape are being
handled by the The Crown Court which contains a Jury consisting 12 people chosen at random
from the local population. The Jury takes decision as the individual is found guilty or not, the
decisions are taken without giving reasons and on considering the facts and proofs for the
case(Pound, 2017).
Discussion on the statement- “We are all equal before the law”.
As from the start of the universe it is stated clearly that all humans are born in the same
way and hence deserve the same rights. But in the past history certain group of people have faced
several discrimination, segregation and injustice due to their race, skin colour, culture/
community that consider them as a lower category of human being. Further it would be discussed
on certain incidents that breached the statement of equality of law on all the citizens and how
people faced the discrimination due to certain factors and elements in them. The first incident
which involved prosecution of British police Officers for the involvement in death of a black
person in November 1971. The Police officers received short criminal sentences for their
involvement in the death of a homeless Nigerian migrant, David Oluwale, who was drowned in
the River Aire, Leeds, England. Oluwale left Nigeria and arrived through Hull in the England
and spent his next 20 years in prison cells, Psychiatric wards and the streets of central Leeds.
Due to over- medication and electroshock therapy in the Mental hospital, Oluwale was weakened
body in 1960. It was a time when two British police officers were enforcing violence against
him. With an intense amount of physical abuse the activities included kicking him by the officers
to that extent that I could lift him in the air. Later in 1969 his body was being found from the

sewage of River Aire, Leeds as one last time. This brutal incident gave rise to the strikes and
protest of “Black people” against racism and treatment of black people by the law. The Jury went
in the favour of Oluwale and found those officers as guilty of slaughtering a human. After this
incident several protest took place around the world for the justice against the “black People
indiscrimination”. This in turn gave rise to the different amendments relating to indiscrimination
of black people and application of equal laws and equal treatment of all the citizens of UK with
regard to their colour and race and hence proved the statement that law is one for all(Hervey and
McHale, 2015).
The Law is important for the society as it serves as a norm of conduct for the citizens.
The law provides proper guidelines and act on the behaviour for all the citizens in order to create
and maintain equality among them. It keeps society running and without laws there would be
chaos and difficult for the survival of individuals in society. Law plays an important role in
regard to any social change by changing or shaping a direct impact on society such as setting up
compulsory education system which will provide equal opportunities to people to make their
child educate. Law act as a medium in bringing out social change in the country and also leads to
social transformation of people through prohibiting caste inequalities, protecting the weak and
vulnerable sections of the society and providing benefits to the weaker and poor people for their
livelihood. Law also plays an important role in changing the economic structure of the society.
The law bridges the gap of inequality among the people and treat every individuals equally in
case of their rights as well as offences. The law is mainly establish I society to act as a security
for the people living in it and taking necessary actions against the breach and violated activities.
As the Human Rights definition says that these rights are applicable to all the citizens of the
country similarly does the Law as it is wholly applicable and treat the culprit equal irrespective
of its religion, race or status. As if supposed the country without law, will no doubt increase the
violence amongst people and give rise to criminal activities with a no fear of being prisoned or
being caught. This will give rise to the rule of power as in back history the powerful man
occupies the land and is considered justice. The idea of considering a country without law will
definitely lead to rise in inequalities and corruption and benefit the individuals with high power
and money resulting in the suffer of poor and common man. Thus the impact of law over the
society, individuals and the development of country is of immense importance as it serves as a
backbone of these factors and help the economy to function smoothly and efficiently with least

amount of problems and complications. Also the rise of different laws related to households has
reduced the activity of domestic violence and other malpractices and gave women equal rights to
fight for their rights. Many amendments in the UK legal system has resulted to reduction of
inequality and injustice among its people and creating a one platform of redressal to their
grievances and problems(Cotterrell, 2017).
Apart from all the benefits and advantages of the Law to the country, there also lies some
of the drawbacks which opposes the main statement of this report. With an rise in economic
development there is rise in corruption too and in turn it act as an exception to the above
statement. Corruption in countries gives rise to the use of money power for fulfilling their
purpose. This creates a huge indiscrimination among the citizens of countries as the rich owns all
and middle as well as poor are suffered most. Even in case of laws, practices include dishonest
judgements and decisions in favour of the criminal party and accordingly counters its statement
of considering the people with equal importance and passing the judgement(Calavita, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is observed that how the Legal system and Law plays a role in
creating a systematic body of justice in a country. Also, the statement “We are all equal before
the law” is justified in the report along with certain incidents and examples that reflect the
statement and its use. Hence It is concluded that law considers every citizen equally, with some
exceptions.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Calavita, K., 2016. Invitation to law and society: An introduction to the study of real law.
University of Chicago Press.
Cotterrell, R., 2017. Law, culture and society: Legal ideas in the mirror of social theory.
Routledge.
Hervey, T.K. and McHale, J.V., 2015. European Union health law (Vol. 301). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Pound, R., 2017. Social control through law. Routledge.
Ramcharan, B.G., 2017. Equality and nondiscrimination. In Equality and Non-Discrimination
under International Law (pp. 29-52). Routledge.
Vago, S., 2015. Law and society. Routledge.