Law needs us, Law controls us and Law makes us.

The lecture received 18-10-2010 by us students from Connel Parsley was arguably one of best in the entire series.
Explaining the foundations of law and its interrelations with the human body to arts students with no previous knowledge of law is a feat in itself.
This is what I have deduced from Monday.

The creation of law as we know it today was based upon Habeas Corpus which arose out of the Magna Carta; which stipulates that all humans have rights. They have rights to stand trial, there is a presumption of innocence and whatever outcome may occur at a trial, the person must adhere to this conclusion (Swiss et al 43). The law needs bodies in which to act through; otherwise it is merely an inhuman abstract idea floating around and not pinned down. Bodies are also evidence; they substantiate legal claims.
Fundamentally, human bodies need law in order to protect themselves and others from injustices. Politics is what gives rise to the creation of law; the governance of a mass of bodies needs both and they are inextricably linked. So, in a natural state of affairs (political philosopher Thomas Hobbes calls this the ‘State of Nature’) is an undesirable position to be in. People are constantly fighting for limited resources and will show disregard for others; being naturally selfish.

Further information: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/#StaNatStaWar
This is why law is integral to human existence. But it does have its flaws. The court system and the emphasis on trials were meant to replace brutality that was entertaining; sovereignty if you will. The time of sovereignty relates to monarchies, hierarchical systems of governments, kings and queens. This was power of one body exercised over others; the power of life and death, the threat of execution was how law was enforced.

Now in an age of bio-politics (statistical management of populations by democratic government) trials replace brutality....most of the time. Guantanamo bay is one of many failures. The successes are how the spread of disease, immigrants, car crashes, crime and other threats are managed. If these exceed a certain percentage, then governments will usually act to minimise the threat.
So where does this progression lead for the human race?
If we choose to abide by law, it will produce us in a certain way as law abiding citizens of a nation state. If we choose not to and are persecuted, it will still produce us in a certain way by controlling our movements, identity, behaviour etc.

Mr. Parsley made a great point when he said “Law, just like other disciplines is imaginative”. You can’t reach out and touch law; it is merely an idea that we have created that seems to benefit the majority of bodies. Many people abide by law and govern their bodies by national or international, spoken or unspoken laws.
Poetics of the body are essentially different ways of looking and understanding the body which we have discussed in this subject. Law is merely one way of looking at the body; one philosophy to comprehend.

Bibliography

Swiss, Thomas and Andrew Herman (2000) The World Wide Web and contemporary

cultural theory. Routledge: New York.