Chapter 822: Double-edged Sword
“What is the fundamental nature of law? It’s simply a tool to rule over the social cla.s.ses. Law is the materialization of the will of the ruling cla.s.s. Law is a way by which the ruler will regulate every part of society.”
Back in China of my original world, every law student who just started to study law would have to learn this definition regarding the fundamental nature of law.
Maybe since China was deeply influenced by Communist thinking, China’s definition of law was also filled with cla.s.s conflict.
“Law is a tool for the ruling cla.s.s to control the social cla.s.ses.”
Back in China, this was considered the public opinion, orthodoxy, and a definite. In fact, most legal scholars and those in the law profession viewed this as a maxim… but, at least in my opinion, that wasn’t everything there was to law.
It was quite evident that such a definition of law could only become reality after a country and social cla.s.ses were formed. But, what about a society that was still unstructured, such as a primitive society that didn’t have written or systematic rules? In that case, weren’t the basic social norms the same as laws?
My old world’s definition of law was endlessly battered in this new world where many different intelligent species coexisted together.
For instance, to use the Silver Dwarves as an example, they were abnormally successful in realizing equality for everyone in the tribe. They had no officials or tribe leaders, yet they were abnormally strict in obeying the tribe’s rules. In that case, since there wasn’t even a ruling cla.s.s in the Silver Dwarves species, the cla.s.sical Chinese definition of law was nothing more than a joke.
Another example would be the Antmen, a minority species. Every single Antman would be born for the sake of serving the Ant Queen. But actually, the Antmen had no self will at all. The Antmen had successfully connected all of their wills as one. There was only actually one mind for an entire Antmen tribe. If there was only one person in the entire tribe, then it would be quite difficult to say who was ruling whom. It was also quite common for the Ant Queen to be sacrificed.
There were also undead tribes, as well as dragons who had even stranger societal structures…
Such situations were actually quite common. In this world, orderly societal structures like the humans’ and elves’ societies with n.o.bles and commoners as separate social cla.s.ses were actually in the minority. I had witnessed countless societal structures which were even stranger than that of the Silver Dwarves’ before.
Since the majority of species hadn’t constructed countries for themselves, continuing to use social cla.s.s theory as the basis for law would obviously be nothing more than a joke.
If I still used such a legal theory as basis, then the idea of “unjust laws are still laws” from my original world would only become an ever more vicious debate that would be impossible to solve here.
Maybe abstract theories would be difficult for readers to understand, so I will give an example. If a tyrant’s depraved rule, a terrorist organization’s internal rules, or an a.s.sa.s.sin organization’s unwritten rules about killing were all recognized as laws, then the new power of Law that I created in this world would only become the strongest weapon of all for villains and tyrants in this world.
Eich was a world where a person’s will was equivalent to actual power. Not giving a definition carefully enough would absolutely lead to complete disaster.
If there was a problem with the foundational definition that I gave to Law in this world, then my system for Law would either end up collapsing or become distorted sooner or later.
“Is Law only a tool for ruling? Law’s functions for guiding people towards kindness and punis.h.i.+ng evil in society can simply be explained as ‘maintaining social stability’? Perhaps the kindness and benefit for society is what Law’s true nature really is.”
In the end, when creating the Original Codex of Law for this world, I abandoned the old Chinese “bible” of law on cla.s.sical legal theory, and instead wrote my personal understanding of law based on the special nature of society in this world.
“Law is something that should guide people towards kindness.”
From that moment onwards, law in Eich was destined to be different from the definition of law in China. The debate over “unjust laws are also laws” would never happen here at all. Evil laws enacted by tyrants would be disqualified from being laws in my Original Codex of Law.
“Law is something that should treat all criminals equally.”
From that moment onwards, the power of Law would only act because of a crime, and the power of Law would never waver or change no matter the criminal’s status or power.
“Law is limited to divine laws and manmade laws…”
As I completed my definitions for Law, I discovered to my astonishment that a certain way of thinking which had long since been discarded by my original world of Earth was actually the best explanation for my personal interpretation of Law.
“…It’s actually the b.l.o.o.d.y and primitive… principle of retaliation.”
Maybe legal retaliation had a certain definition, but what I meant was actually quite simple.
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
Someone who harmed or killed others should be treated in the same way depending on how many crimes they committed. Someone who tore out another person’s eye should have their own eye torn out. Someone who killed another should be killed as well. In the most primitive societies, it was a blood relative of the victim who would take revenge in the majority of situations. Thus, this concept had another name… blood vengeance.
Since taking blood vengeance was far too barbaric, vicious, and cruel, modern-day countries in my original world had long since forbidden such a thing.
However, perhaps it was precisely because the world of Eich was too cruel and barbaric that my power of Law could be created in this world with such a form.
The power of Law would use even crueler methods to scare evil villains. Even if a villain was able to escape judgement in their life, they would still be punished after death in h.e.l.l. There would be zero exceptions to this.
Law gave victims the right of vengeance. Once an evil villain’s deeds were exposed for all to see, once the Codex of Law at the River Styx Hall recorded a person’s entire life, their heavy crimes would finally become a noose that would strangle them.
Law was something that gave the innocent and weak a necessary sense of safety because the cut-off heads of villains would remain hanging high up on the castle walls in order to strike fear into the hearts of would-be villains in the future.
Law gave the protectors and enforcers of the law an incomparably sharp sword as they were the protectors of the weak and ordinary people, as well as the representatives of vengeance for the victims.
Obviously, this was rather extreme, b.l.o.o.d.y, barbaric, and unreasonable.
But in this cruel world, if I used modern-day laws from Earth… which was a place where some places were already beginning to get rid of the death penalty, and the rich could simply pay money to get out of jail… using such “laws written in a peaceful generation” for this world would only mean that I was a huge idiot.
To give a very simple example, if I continued to use legal theory from modern-day Earth as the foundation for Law in Eich, then my Justice Knights would have to act like modern-day policemen even if they witnessed a murder themselves. They would have to first gather evidence and witnesses, then send the criminal to court to accept a fair and just judgement… in a way, the Justice Knights would be even weaker than modern-day policemen because the fixed Concept of Law would be far more inflexible and foolish than any justice system from Earth.
I should also mention that the death penalty as a concept of vengeance was becoming ever rarer on modern-day Earth.
“A murderer should pay with their own life.”
This was considered common sense back in more ancient and primitive societies on Earth. However, many modern countries of Earth were already rejecting this idea that murderers had to face the death penalty. Laws on Earth were becoming ever more complex, which actually gave criminals who committed horrible crimes even more opportunities to commit evil deeds once again.
Eich was a world with limited resources. This was far too much of an extravagance to afford.
“A chaotic world requires strict laws… this world is more chaotic than the word chaotic can describe, so the laws naturally must be endlessly severe.”
Only after I confirmed the core of the fundamentals of Law that I wanted were Law Incantations born.
Still, no matter what, Law was still a power of Order, and a type of elemental power in this world. While Law needed to obey the definition of its own Concept, it also needed to obey the natural laws of the elements.
Setting rules was a power of Order. The power of Law wasn’t the only power of Order related to rules.
Prophecy magic, wish magic, and other such types of magic relying on “reason” were actually using the various layers of rules. This was quite similar to the power of Law. The traits of such magic spells were also the same as either the spell would succeed as expected, or the spell would fail and produce nothing.
Wish magic would distort any wish that was difficult for the caster to achieve. It would be impossible for any major prophecy spell to determine something overly complex or to try and force a specific future to happen. Thus, even if a pope tried to force a prophecy, he would still say that it was something really simple.
The power of Law was the same. Using a Law Incantation was still a compet.i.tion of power between the two sides. If the Law user won, then the Law Incantation would succeed. If the villain was far too strong, then the attack-type Law Incantations would be weakened, and the binding incantations would become ineffective. It was still a contest of elemental power.
The more complex something was, the weaker its foundation would be. The more simple and direct something was, the stronger and more difficult to distort it would become.
In the end, when I resolved myself to create my Law sword, I finally used the most basic and primitive method to achieve my goal.
“Begin judgement, Law Sword Vengeance, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… a life for a life!”
My double-edged runic short sword suddenly appeared in midair. As Karwenz watched in surprise, his physical body was directly torn apart into several pieces. As I laughed at him, my physical body exploded at the same time.