Here is your essay on Laws, Social Change and Socio-Legal Research in India:
Law is the expression of the will of the society. Its virtue or vice depends on the social conscience at a given time. A bad law is a manifestation of an aberration in a body politic of the conscience of the society.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In every political society it is the law which contributes to its civilized character, but law is the handmaid of social justice, rendering in the interest of society that which is according to law and to which a person or persons are entitled.
Law is the very foundation of society and the true function of justice is to keep the scales even between man and man to adjudicate the merits of the problem brought before the courts in the true light.
Image Source: ohsinc.com
According to Salmond ‘Law, as the body of principle recognized and applied by the state for the administration of justice, “and the object of law is to achieve justice.” From the above definition it is clear that law is important to achieve justice, social, economical and political and it is said that the measures of success of a democracy is the maximum realization of the aspirations, ambitions and ideals of the largest number of citizens.
The function of law is not only restricted to adjudication or punishment. Its aim is to achieve real equality which is social and economic and hence, in true sense, law is means to secure justice, Legal, social and it is also true that law is an instrument of serving the need of human society.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Law, whether codified or uncodified is a dynamic process. Law cannot stand still, it must change with the changing social concept and values, it should grow with changing needs of society.
As society is a changing phenomenon and with the change its need has also changed, there occurs gradual or suitable changes in society, and there is a good variety of interactions between social evolution and legal change and with changing social scenario, it is necessary that where the existing law is unable to move with changes taking place in our society, to reform it or where there exists no law, it all then make a law to regulate the changes that are taking place in the society.
If the law fails to be progressive, it is bound to be disregarded and thus to decay and die because law is meant for society. So it is true that law is a dynamic process. It is a flow, constantly changing and continually expanding. It consists of rules and has a pattern, but the rules and pattern change as they are used over a period of time.
Law is best understood by viewing the legal system as a process, a means of pulling together society’s need and goals and translating them into guides for fairness and reasonableness in conduct and so law must keep pace with a progressive, modern society, for the development and progress of any society.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It is necessary that it should be an ordered society. If there is chaos and confusion, no progress is possible. Control over it is essential. In order to control the society it is necessary that through knowledge of it must be acquired, e.g., in order to remove caste barriers or in order to remove untouchability the causes for their emergence and continuance must be studied and measures for their eradication must be suggested.
If we wish to reduce crime or make society free from crime and criminals, the causes of crime and the attitude of people involved in it should be studied, e.g., sex, age, group, class of society, etc. and also similar steps should be necessary to remove offences from society.
The problems of today cannot be solved by the old legislations and methods and so they will have to be altered from time to time to suit the changing social circumstances.
Courts through their judicial decisions reflect important, social, economic and political goals and need of the society in which they function. Rule of law reflects the society and time in which they operate.
A great deal of changes in our laws were made or are being made on the basis of suggestions given by the law commission of India, jurists and judges. And this is possible only if a great deal of thinking and research is carried on in the area of law. And so today, it is needed to rely on socio-legal research for law reform, which serve the various purposes such as it suggests a reform in the existing law, socio-legal research, collect, search and make available the legal principle which are useful for society, it suggests a set of rules where no rules exist at all.
Socio-legal research can enable us to find out the deficiencies in an enactment and the problems of its implementations. The object of socio-legal research is to find out lacunae or deficiencies in the existing laws and to suggest suitable measures to eliminate them. And also another objective is that, where there is an area for which there is no law at all, by conducting socio-legal research, would be suggested suitable legislations for that area.
And so we say that, the significance of socio-legal research lies in the submission of proposal for reform in the existing law be it enacted, customary or judicial socio-legal research is very useful to find out. Impact of any established legislation or impact of a newly formed legal principle, rule or institution on society.
And so it helps the Government in formulating suitable laws. In pursue its economic and social policies for e.g. law and legal propositions are not find or absolute. They are in the state of becoming. Accepted norms or principles whether statutory or as principle of justice, equity and good conscience are applied again and again to test its voracity or authenticity as a true principle of law.
If it is found to be unjust, it may be modified or changed to meet the present requirement for e.g. Indian Penal Code had declared that an attempt to commit suicide is an offence and the person attempting to do so is punishable under the law under section 309 a great controversy has arisen on this issue in the famous case.
State of Maharashtra v. Maruty Sripati Dubai, 1987 Cr. L.J. 549 and the question arises that whether a person has right to die? Like right to (live), Life and S.C. declared that everyone has right to die and has a freedom to dispose of his life as and when he desires.
After the judgment of S.C. in this case there are various views given by various peoples on this issue. Again, in another case same issue arose and S.C. gave same reaction.
But it created great controversy and after various social researches, it is finally realised that “Right to die” or Euthanasia is dangerous in Indian social atmosphere and have dangerous effect on society and so court had set aside all previous judgments in support of right to die and declared section 309 of I.P.C. which penalized for committing suicide as valid.
Again, we can give example of removal of untouchability the system of untouchability is a curse for our Indian society which creates several problems. Our Government carried a crusade against untouchability and worked hard for the upliftment of backward caste people or upliftment of Harijans and even our constitution provides abolishing untouchability.
But practice of atrocities towards S.C and ST and untouchability is continued after various efforts of Government with the help of various social legal research. Government came to the conclusion that there is need to have some drastic legislation to eliminate problem of untouchability and atrocities again of S.C. and S.T. and on that basis our Indian Government enacted Prevention of Atrocities on S.C and S.T Act 1995.
From foregoing discussion it is clear that socio-legal research is very useful in present century. Because, it identifies the roots of a social evil and tries to prohibit it by giving various useful suggestions which are important to formulate any new legislation or to amend the provisions of old one.
There are various legislations which are the result of socio-legal research, e.g., Eradication of dowry.
Prohibition of Sati,
Prohibition of child marriage,
Legalizing widow marriage.
There are various different methods, made to carry out socio- legal research which depends upon the circumstances of problems.
Finally, it is concluded that recent efforts of Government to encourage the effectiveness of legislations have emphasized the need for socio-legal research and for a corresponding sense of relevance to contemporary social problems.
Legislations to bring about social change can be either direct or indirect social change can be initiated by various factors, including changes in the physical environment, contract with other societies, internal social change or with the new technological or social inventions and so there is need to change law with changing needs of society, and for that there is need to reform law as per social change and it can be possible only through effective socio-legal research because, socio-legal research helps to discover new facts, problems in society and also test and verify old problems.
And to analyse them, it is also helpful to examine the consequences of new facts or new legal principles or judicial decision on society in general and evaluate the usefulness of any new enactment on society. And for that such research examines the nature and scope of new law or legal institution.
Such research ascertains the merits and demerits of the old laws or institution and give suggestions for a new law or institution in place of a old one is also helpful for critical interpretation of any statute through socio-legal research we can easily make efforts to examine different legal systems of the world and comparing them and try to ascertain, which system or set of rules are ideal for our society.
It is true that, socio-legal research actually expresses the opinion, needs of people towards any old, new legislations the data in socio-legal research based on public opinion. Mostly, it includes studies of public opinion and law, legal forms and economic realities, judicial values and perspectives.
Law does not operate in vacuum, it operates in society and so legislation which is useful to society, only becomes an adequate or effective legislation. It is ineffective if it is completely against social need of changing society, and for that socio-legal research is only an effective medium to increase the effectiveness of any legislation.
And so it is recommended to encourage more and more socio-legal research, such study in the realm of law will give a new insight to law makers and implementers. It will enrich teaching of law and make its practice more relevant to suit the needs of the people in changing society, and can maintain a balance between law and social change by conducting law reform which is the need of this fast developing century to cope up with growing criminality and social evils.