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The rule of law and social change
MICHAEL CAPITANO
Staff Writer
I’ve spent a fair portion of my time this
semester exploring around the law. That is, instead
of taking purely substantive law courses, I’ve been
studying issues regarding legal theory and law
and society. So far, it has provided me with much
appreciated perspectives on the project of the law
and its relation to social change.
It is easy to become cynical over the idea.
Some of us come to law school with high hopes
of shaping the future, only to be disillusioned by
how little impact any one individual has through
the practice of law. But I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not really through law where social
change happens. Developments in the law merely
reflect the direction of where society is heading.
Social change happens through the ongoing discourse between concerned members of society;
a re-enactment of that discourse occurs once it
broaches the law, either through the courts or
the legislature. As lawyers, we serve as advocates and translators to turn social change into
legal reform. In order to affect change, then, it is
important not to look at the law as a set of rules
and principles that purport to govern society, but
as a reified entity that impacts the ways we exercise our autonomy. Insights from interdisciplinary
approaches on this stubbornly autonomous field
can enable us to understand how the law interacts
with society.
Social change is inevitable. The same goes
for the direction of which change occurs. Anyone
who has studied the history of Western civilization will know that change is reactive, that social
movements build off each other, and that new
ones arise to counter the old ones that have run
out of value. It is also cyclical in the sense that
although scientific and technological advances
move us forward, the core as to what makes us
human does not change. The resultant cultural
discourse is thus between changes in society and
our human experience within it. It is what allows
us to pull on insights from the great thinkers of
the past and present and appropriate their ideas
to help shed insight onto contemporary social
issues. It is what will allow us to bridge the gap
between societal concerns and the law. It is how
decisions like Bedford come about and how the
Carter appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
presents the very real possibility that the Court
will overturn its two decade old Rodriguez decision on assisted suicide. Social change is going to
occur; conservative social values preserved in law
are going to be replaced by more liberal, equalityand sustainability-oriented principles. It is only
a matter of when, of how long, and if we want
to be in control before something happens that
makes that decision for us. I am