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The CharacteristicsOf Laws

In a democracy, the objective of laws is to serve the best interests of the people and reflect thehighest aspirations. Laws are the useful, i.e., problem-solving, meansof government by which endsof government are attained. Since laws have the same general characteristics as all otheuseful products, they, too, can be designed and improved by the same quality methods usedto design and optimize other products.

EVERY LAW OF GOVERNMENT HAS THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS:

Letter of the LawA law is a written order -- a set of instructions, or software-- that provides directions for humanbehavior. The entire written content of a law is the "letter of the law," and it is nothing more or lethan the fixed arrangement of its words and punctuation. The letter of the law conveys the spirthe law.

Spirit of the LawContained within the letter of the law is the purpose, or intent, which is termed the "spirit of the For any given law, the spirit of the law is the hoped-for change, or benefit, that the law willproduce, as predicted by the designers of the law. In other words, laws are toolsthat are intend

be useful. Since the spirit of the law is the reason for its existence, the letter of the law issubordinate to the problem-solving intent of the law.

SanctionsLaws are the forcible means by which a government achieves its goals; they arecoercions, restrictions, prohibitions, or commands for action that attempt to regulate or change behavior or status of those individuals and institutions that are subject to the law.

To encourage individuals and institutions to comply with the law, each law has a mechanism ofenforcement, or authorized sanction (the "carrot or stick"), that is applied to accomplish the intethe law. Subsidies, fines, and imprisonment are examples of mechanisms that may be used as

forcible sanction of a law.

CostsAll laws consume and divert resources. The costs to a government for the creation and operatiits body of laws are borne by the people. To pay the direct costs of laws, governments create aenforce additional laws (at additional cost to the people) to raise revenue through sanctions suctaxes, fees, and fines.

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There are nine principal costs of a law of government:

1) The cost of the research and design effort that is required to create the law.2) The cost of the legislature to conduct the legislative process and perform legislative

oversight of the law.

3) The cost to promulgate the law, its amendments, and eventual repeal.4) The disbursement of funds from the treasury as specified by the law.5) The cost to enforce the law.6) The cost to administer and interpret the law in the courts of justice.7) The cost of compliance: the time, labor, and funds that are expended by those who

are required to comply with the law.8) The opportunity cost, or the loss of opportunity for individuals and institutions to conduct

alternative activities of high value, such as education or research, because theresources for those activities were instead applied to the law.

9) The cost to assure and improve the quality of the law through quality assurance(QA) and quality improvement (QI) programs.

Side EffectsLaws, like all other human creations, may or may not be useful, but they always produce uninteside effects. The parameters used to measure the side effects of laws are the human rights, livstandards, and quality of life standards of the people -- any or all of which may be unintentionadegraded when a law is enforced.

PerformanceSince every law forces a change in the natural order of things and, since every law imposesrestrictions, incurs costs, and produces unwanted side effects, the performance, or usefulness each law, in terms of its overall effect upon the well being of the public, can be derived.

The performance of a law is, simply, the measure of the problem-solving benefitof the law minthe measured sum of its burdens(restrictions, costs, and side effects). If the net benefit (benefminus burdens) is positive, the law is useful. If the net benefit is zero, the law is useless. If the nbenefit is negative, the law is detrimental. For a democracy, the only valid laws are those whosnet benefit is positive.

FallibilityLaws are the product of human creative efforts and are therefore fallible. They may fail in theirobjective as a result of design defects or become outmoded. They may also incur excessive coor produce unacceptable side effects. Fortunately, laws, like every other human-made productmay be improved by design changes (amendments) and they may be repealed when they are fto be less than useful.

In a democracy, the ultimate purpose of laws is to solve or mitigate the societal problems thatdegrade or threaten to degrade the liberty and well-being of the people, i.e., the "public good."Clickhereto learn more about the parameters that define the public good.

http://www.qualityoflaws.com/democracy/the-public-good.aspxhttp://www.qualityoflaws.com/democracy/the-public-good.aspxhttp://www.qualityoflaws.com/democracy/the-public-good.aspxhttp://www.qualityoflaws.com/democracy/the-public-good.aspx