Page:Yale Law Journal - Volume 27.pdf/27

Rh One reason for this is because the term law has no technical meaning. We speak of the laws of nature, of juridical law, and of the laws of grammar, etc. This discussion, however, is limited to a consideration of juridical law; and while that narrows its scope, it is still true that the term law has no accepted meaning. As that term is sometimes used, its makers are intended, as when we speak of the end, purpose or problem of law.

If laws are made, that is, if they are not facts in the sense in which the so-called laws of nature are facts, what must be intended when we speak of the purpose of a law is the end its makers had in view when it was enacted.

By law, as that term is sometimes used, the standard of justice, or the yardstick to determine right from wrong, is intended; and an attempt to define it resolves itself into an attempt to define the standard of justice.

I think that that standard is subjective, or to be found in the mind of the lawmakers; but many, perhaps the majority, think that it is objective, or to be found outside of the consciousness of the lawmaker. In other words, I think the yardstick to determine right from wrong for each of the communities into which the race is divided is to be found in its consciousness. If this view is sound, the time will come when the standard of justice will be found in the consciousness of the race; for the time is coming when all the different communities will be fused into one community, and when that time comes, community ideals will be the ideals of the human race. In short, in my view of the matter, the standard that is in fact applied to determine right from wrong is to be found in public opinion, whether the community that evolves it is a savage tribe or the race as a whole. While public opinion is the practical standard of justice, the ideal standard is the concept that those acts and those only that tend to promote the welfare of the race as distinguished from the welfare of particular communities are right, just and equitable. While this is my view of both the ideal and the practical yardstick to determine right from wrong, the majority believe that the standard is objective, or that it is to be found somewhere in space rather than in the consciousness of the individual, of the community or of the human race. If we are to understand what law is and its office in the social scheme, it