William Thomas Oliver 11 September 2011 History 101 Mr. Alexander The early Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations wrote laws that have evolved somewhat into what we use today in our modern laws. What I observed in this topic is that in Ancient Middle East laws were written by kings, not by a group of people known as a governing body. The legal code of Hammurabi from Ancient Middle Eastern time were the most famous laws made after the Hebrew Torah. These laws are interesting to most readers because it tells us how the attitudes of ancient Babylonians. There attitudes were a little barbaric in a sense of the punishments, death, breaking of bones, gouging out of the eyes tied up and cast into the water, I guess its what we call now a days, “ an eye for eye, tooth for a tooth”.
In October 1799 Napoleon became first consul of the government and in so being became the most powerful man in France. Napoleon claimed to be the “heir of the revolution” and to begin with he introduced a new system of government promoting “career open to talent” which allowed people from various origins to take high ranking positions in the government and military. Napoleon also made feudalism, which was abolished by the revolution illegal in France thus showing his support for the revolution. Napoleon also introduced legal reforms by writing the “Code Napoleon.” With this he replaced the law codes of the ancient regime which during the revolution had caused much confusion. This new set of laws meant that every French citizen had equal rights promoting the revolutionary idea of equality among all men.
He opened their eyes to the ideals of democracy and the free world. He exhibited unbridled power and found that he too, like many before him, wanted to rule the world. B. Summary of Evidence • He was responsible for the spreading of the liberalizing ideas of the French Revolution throughout Europe, which help to bring an end to the remnants of feudal systems still existing in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. • Even though he was an Emperor, he actually started the demise of kingdoms and royalty.
Paine used Common Sense as a great tool to let the commoners and less educated to gain some insight on the role and purpose of government. Firstly, Paine makes a distinction between government and society. Paine states: “Society is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best.” He goes on to say that “government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the extent to which it accomplishes this goal.” Basically, Paine is stating to the common people that they have the opportunity to form their own representation of government and do it in a way that truly represents their wants and needs.
Thoreau wrote the Essay on Civil Disobedience, in which he addressed the question, “when do larger moral imperatives justify violating a law supported by the majority”. His response was that when a law “… is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law’’. This follows from basic English Common Law, in which you can do something as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else. Thoreau’s philosophy is that you disobey a command (law) when it is hurting someone else. Another area of his thinking is that government is symbolic of a ‘machine’, and man should commit non-violent disobedience to ‘gain access to the machine’.
Magna Carta (Summary) The Magna Carta was written over 800 years ago in England. It was written due to defeats with the French. It was the first document that stated that men are free individuals. It states that it is up to us as to what we do with our lives unless the law states otherwise, such a murder. The Magna Carta explains the role of the government and what you can expect from them.
The Unjust of Just law Ethics 110 22 Jun 2010 In a democratic state it is in never within our rights to break the law. Breaking the law leads to lawlessness and disobedience from the democracy that we have worked, or have been born into. If the law is unjust, then it might be fair to break that law as long as you are willing to suffer the consequences of punishment set aside for that particular unjust law. Failure to adhere to the punishment is unjust as well, for failure to adhere to the punishment of the law is a statement that you do not respect the laws of your society. Martin Luther King Jr. states “Oppressed People cannot remain oppressed forever.” (Cahn, 2009 p. 387) As we have seen throughout history, this is a true statement.
He thought that the government would be given too much power. His thoughts on the injustices in the Constitution greatly influenced the making of the Bill of Rights. At the time, Federalists argued that the Constitution didn’t need a bill of rights, due to the fact that the people and states kept any powers not given to the federal government, but Anti-Federalists said that a bill of rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty. So when the Bill of Rights was made it listed prohibitions on governmental power and the rights that were granted to people. When the Bill of Rights was adopted into the Constitution it was became the fundamental rights of all citizens in 1791.
They are being taken over by detail and spreading attention over many responsibilities instead of being able to focus on a few. Today, Thoreau’s writing on simplifying people’s lives and minds, and keeping a moral obligation to one’s self, is a key aspiration to being an individual. Thoreau presents these points in “Civil Disobedience” through an analysis of the government and its relationship to people under their control. He believes that the government and society infringe on the personal rights and thoughts of individuals by imposing taxes and laws that can violate an individual’s morality. He believes, “that government is best, which governs least.” (Civil
Tocqueville argues that the only thing which will keep Americans away from these dangers, which would undoubtedly lead to despotism is religion as source of moral education. He says that all decisions by man are a result of the values which man has received from god and without these values we would be left to a life full of disorder. Religion indirectly affects the state through mores which are described as “the whole moral and intellectual state of a people.”(287) These mores are what prevents democracies from being engulfed by the dangers which are products of tyranny and despotism. In a state without religion “each man gets into the way of having nothing but confused and changing notions about the matters of greatest importance to himself and his fellows”(444) and when combating materialism, the presence of religion “places the