Let us first consider how the present-day Canadian society enforces its laws. Generally speaking, the psychology and intention behind the system is relatively straightforward: if you break the law, you will be punished. Given the society that we live in today, the punishment is made in forms of fines, community service or jailing. However, crimes on various scales are committed on a daily basis today. This is why we thought it was significant to consider on whether punishment is the only effective method of enforcing the law, and if so, what sort of punishment should be imposed on the crime committed.
- The ‘Two Handles’
As an approach to muster up a new form of enforcing the law, we decided to consider human nature, and align our methodology with it. Although, we have adopted a Confucian attitude in regards to human nature, we also took the Legalist definition into account; they claim that human beings were inherently selfish and short-sighted. To a certain extent, we believe this is true and that human need to be constantly reminded of what is appropriate and what is not. So would the remodelling of human nature be a probable first step to enforcing the law? Answer is; it is too unrealistic. Similar, to the society depicted in the novel 1984, we cannot control how people think. After reflecting on how we laid out our Utopian society, we have concluded that the implementation of the ‘two handles’ is believed to be the most effective way to enforce the law. Being a Legalist term, the two handles refer to reward and punishment. If, exercised properly, people will not only behave in accordance to the law, but will be incentivized to collaborate in sustaining a self-regulating state.
- Widely publicized laws (fa) *L
A system of law cannot be effective unless it is know to its commoners. The question here is, what is the most efficient way to spread the word of a newly established law. As previously mentioned, the new two-step law passing methodology is not perfected if the people are unaware of the rules that are about to be laid out. In most cases, a law is made apparent when we put our eyes through some source of current events. Whether it is BBC or the International Herald Tribune, this is the quickest way to be aware of who had broken the law, and the repercussions that follow. Also this is a largely effective and accepted method of acknowledging the events that take place in our society, the flaw exists when the individual does not draw any relevance with it. This is where we have decided to adopt the Legalist notion of ‘mutual responsibility’. For example, if a family failed to report a tax evasion, and is caught their whole family would be punished.