Written Laws In Brave New World

Since the beginning of recorded history there have been written laws, from Hammurabi’s code in ancient Mesopotamia, all the way to modern day, with nearly all civilizations in between having some form of legislature. In the case of societies without a form of written code, law is based on the status quo: Unspoken and unwritten rules that all members of society are expected to know based upon common morals and beliefs. Even in the United States, with so many written laws, society is still governed nearly entirely by the status quo. Societal order is maintained within the United States, as well as any other civilization, through these nuanced rules and the consequences that come with breaking them. The written laws of a society are almost entirely

These laws are not hard to follow: do not kill anyone, do not steal anything, be a moral individual. However, there are still rules which nearly everyone follows that are not in the legislature of the society such as what clothes to wear and what can not be said because it is offensive. In reality, someone can wear whatever clothes they wish and can say whatever they want. Society does not have these rules placed into written law, yet they are followed. In Huxley’s Brave New World, some of the major social norms in the United States have become written law: drugs are legal, shopping and overspending is a must, and casual sex is a daily occasion (Huxley 53). In today’s society, these “future laws” are not required of every citizen but they are expected to be done. A society can even function without written law. As long as a society has this status quo, it can survive and function. This can be seen in More’s Utopia, where the law is based solely upon social norms. In this society, there are very little written laws. Utopians feel there is no need to put into words something which is fundamentally understood by the citizens (More 147). The status quo encompasses nearly everything a society could ever have to deal with. Because of this there really is no need to write down these laws when everyone knows and abides by them already, just as it is in Utopia. While these three

This could range from a small fine or community service to a lifetime spent in prison. These consequences are pre-established for written rules and laws that coincide with them. The consequences faced when the unwritten laws of the status quo are broken or opposed are far less predictable and, in some cases, more severe. While the written rules have written punishments, unwritten rules, obviously, do not. Before an experiment conducted by Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher, a reason for this unwritten consequence could only be speculated. Fehr and Fischbacher found that those who punish others do so in order for society to function more effectively. This is because the person being punished has “higher cooperation in future periods” (Fehr, Fischbacher). Very similarly, the punishment for written laws are in place to maintain the order of society. Adversely, one being punished for breaking an unwritten law would not be explicitly informed of the crime he’s committed. This is precisely the case in More’s Utopia, where both the law and the punishments that coincide are unwritten and based upon societal standards. The punishment is determined by the crime, meaning that the same type of crime could be committed twice and the punishment could be different both times (More 147). By having these unwritten and flexible punishments, the government can dole out a punishment which would help better both the