Yet, in academic circles around the world this question is...

Yet, in academic circles around the world this question is raised in a very serious fashion: Should only the least necessary social laws be codified, or, should social laws be all-encompassing and regulate all facets of human affairs? This question is addressed in political philosophy and legal philosophy at the highest level of academic forums. In this connection, two conflicting approaches face each other.

On one hand, a group is of the opinion that people must be free in their activities and that the legislative organ should make minimum laws and not limit the activities of people beyond what is necessary. This is liberalism, which believes that every individual in society be allowed to behave the way he or she likes. Regulations must be formulated in order to restrain people’s activities only as much as is necessary and not beyond it.

The legislative organ and the government should not regularly make laws and persistently interfere in the activities and lives of people. Opposed to this is the holistic outlook (holism) which holds that everything must be encompassed by law and all human actions—social, political, economic, etc.—must have specific and definite laws. Also, the government must strive to implement these laws. The above question is not a simple and casual question.

In fact, it is a very delicate one, dealing with the scope and limit of law—the kind of laws that should be made, and quantitatively, the extent and domain of the lives of people they should encompass. Status of law in democratic systems The question about the extent and domain of laws is related to different schools of thought on the philosophy of legislation which offer different theories and views on the right of legislation and the determination of its criteria.

A well known perspective maintains that those who have the right of legislation for the people are the ones who are chosen by the people themselves to do so. Thus, in reality, the right of legislation belongs to the people themselves and they are the ones who enact laws for themselves. The political system which is formed on the basis of this perspective is called “democratic”.

After the acceptance of the democratic system this question is posed: Would whatever the majority of the elected representatives of the people—i.e. 50% plus one—like and agree upon be regarded a binding law?