Legal Literacy - Of the many opinions that exist regarding the purpose of law, if we want to inventory them, there are only two theories, namely ethical theory and utility theory. These two theories are the foundation of other theories or opinions, and these other theories are variants or combinations of ethical and/or utility theories.

Ethical Theory in the Purpose of Law

The philosopher Aristotle introduced ethical theory in his book entitled Rhetorica and Ethica Nicomachea. This theory argues that the purpose of law is solely to realize justice. Justice here is ius suum cuique tribuere (the complete slogan is iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuere) which can be interpreted as "giving to each person what is their part or right". Furthermore, Aristotle divides justice into two, namely commutative justice (justice that gives to each person according to their services) and distributive justice (justice that gives each person the same amount without having to remember individual services).

It is called ethical theory because the content of law must be determined solely by our ethical awareness of what is just and what is unjust. This theory is considered biased by L.J. Van Apeldoorn because it excessively glorifies justice, which in the end will not be able to create general rules. Meanwhile, general rules are a means to legal certainty and order.

Utility Theory in the Purpose of Law

Jeremy Bentham, a legal expert from England, argued that law aims to realize what is useful or what is in accordance with utility (effective). The famous adage is “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”. This theory greatly glorifies legal certainty and requires the existence of generally applicable regulations, so the famous juridical slogan proclaimed by Ulpianus in Digesta emerged,lex dura sed tament scripta” or “lex dura sed ita scripta” which, when translated, means “the law is harsh, but it has indeed been determined to be so.”

The two theories above contain the same weakness, namely being unbalanced or biased. As a result of glorifying justice, ethical theory ignores legal certainty. If legal certainty is ignored, order will be disturbed. Whereas precisely with order. Justice can be realized well. Conversely, because it excessively glorifies utility, utility theory ignores justice. Precisely law can be useful, if it upholds justice as much as possible.

Based on the weaknesses of these two theories, many derivative or combined theories have emerged from these two theories, which do not emphasize justice or emphasize expediency too much.

Even today, the development of the theory of legal objectives is still ongoing. Some examples of the development of the theory of legal objectives that can be used to explore the true meaning of legal objectives include:

  1. However, the purpose of law is to create peace and prosperity in social life. Therefore, it is necessary to refer to Ulpianus' view which states: iuris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non-ladere, suum cuique tribuere which, when freely translated, means "the commands of law are: to live honestly, not to harm fellow human beings, and for everyone to get their share."
  2. In discussing the purpose of law, it is also necessary to put forward Bellefroid's opinion which states "het recht beoogt de geestelijke, zedelijke en stoffelijke behoeften der gemenschaap op passende wijze te bevredigen of ook: de persoonlijkheid der mensen in het gemeenschapsleven te volmaken, d.w.z. de gemeenschap zo te ordenen, dat de persoon zijn geestelijke, zedelijke, en lichamelijke vermogens daarin ontplooien en tot hun hoogste ontwikkeling brengen” (Free Translation: law seeks to fulfill the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of its community, or also to improve the personality of individuals in social life. Thus, if it is said that society is in an orderly state, it means that everyone in that society can develop their condition both physically, mentally and spiritually).
  3. This is the true meaning and purpose of law. Law wants harmony and peace in social life. Law fills an honest and peaceful life in all levels of society.
  4. The oldest legislation known from legal studies is the legislation of Hammourabi, King of Babylonia (± 2000 BC). The intended purpose of the law in the legislation contains the provision that states "the strong should not harm the weak."
  5. The purpose of law is the version of the protection theory (protection as a symbol of justice symbolized by the banyan tree. Discovered by Minister of Justice Sahardjo to replace the western symbol of state justice which is personified by the Goddess Themis (daughter of Ouranos and Gala).

According to the theory of protection, the purpose of law is to protect humans both actively and passively. Actively, it is intended as an effort to create a humane social condition in a process that takes place naturally. As for what is meant passively, namely seeking to prevent arbitrary actions and abuse of rights. Efforts to realize this protection include:

  • realizing order and regularity;
  • realizing true peace;
  • realizing justice; and
  • realizing welfare and social justice.

Justice

As with rights and obligations, discussions about justice will be discussions that seem to never end. A human's life will never be separated from questions and statements, "have I gotten justice?", "whose version of justice is this, mine or yours?", "this is very unfair!", "I need justice", criticisms of other subjects about justice are also often thrown out, "ah, the referee is unfair, biased, no wonder he can win", "what's wrong with this mother, why did she give me a D, even though I've already collected the assignments, this mother is unfair", or even because of a mistake or because of a lack of faith, someone once said "God is unfair", even though we know that God is Most Just and God cannot be wrong in giving something to His servants.

So what is called fair or justice? Interpreting fair or justice requires a process of reflection and understanding that is not short, someone can feel fair or unfair at different or the same time. The search for the true essence of fair or justice will continue as long as humans live in this world, only after the afterlife will humans feel the fairest justice.

Only God's Court can provide that. The problem of thinking about the meaning of justice has long been the object of every human's thought. The most common is the theory of justice by the philosopher Aristotle who introduced ethical theory in his book entitled Rhetorica and Ethica Nicomachea. This theory argues that the purpose of law is solely to realize justice. Justice here is ius suum cuique tribuere (the complete slogan is iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuere) which can be interpreted as "giving to each person what is their part or right". Furthermore, Aristotle divides justice into two, namely commutative justice (justice that gives to each person according to their services) and distributive justice (justice that gives each person the same amount without having to remember individual services).

In its development, this kind of justice is not only limited to commutative and distributive justice, but there is also what is called vindictive justice (giving rewards or punishments to one or more people according to the mistakes they have made), creative justice (providing protection to someone who is considered creative in producing his creation), protective justice (providing assistance and protection to every human being so that no one can be treated arbitrarily), and legal justice (justice that the law wants to create).