The Only Purpose of the Law: Protection Against Force

St Augustine once said, “an unjust law is no law at all” and I agree. The only proper use of the law, that is the exercise of collective force, is to protect Man from the violation of his liberty and property. This use of the law is the only justice there is and  the only that ever could be. Law is and only can be used to prevent injustice. Any law that fails this test is not law.

When the law is inverted against Man’s liberty and property, this is plunder. Whenever any force, collective or private, by individuals, gangs, corporations, mafias, or governments, is used to organize anything other than protections of liberty and property, whether it be education, housing, and other forms of wealth distribution, this is plunder. Force cannot be used to organize anything other than liberty and property without destroying liberty and property, destroying the very justification of its use in the first place. Since using force to do anything but organize justice can only destroy justice, it mustn’t be used for anything but justice, that is the protection of man’s liberty and property against his usurpers.

We must do better than think that just because some individuals or groups have gotten away with legalized plunder (aristocracy / nationalism), we all should engage in legalized plunder (socialism / communism). There is an alternative between  plunder for the few and plunder for the many. It is plunder for no one under the law, otherwise known as laissez-faire capitalism, where no one is permitted to disenfranchise a man from his life, liberty, or property and the law recognizes this reality as right. Until then and in so far as plunder is permitted by men for himself at the expense of others (exploitation) or by others at the expense of himself (sacrifice), mankind will suffer needlessly from both his ignorance and his malice.