The Law

—misfortune than this one: the Law converted into an instrument of plunder.

What are the consequences of such a disturbance? It would take volumes to describe them all. Let us be content with pointing out the most prominent ones.

The first is to erase from the conscience the notion of what is just and what is unjust.

No society can exist if respect for the Laws does not prevail to some degree; but the surest way for laws to be respected is for them to be respectable. When Law and Morality original: "Morale." Bastiat refers here to the internal, natural sense of right and wrong that exists independently of legislation. are in contradiction, the citizen finds themselves in the cruel alternative of either losing their sense of Morality or losing their respect for the Law, two misfortunes equally great and between which it is difficult to choose.

It is so much in the nature of the Law to make Justice prevail, that Law and Justice are one and the same in the minds of the masses. We all have a strong disposition to regard what is legal as legitimate, to the point that many falsely derive all justice from the Law. It is therefore sufficient for the Law to order and consecrate Plunder original: "Spoliation." This is Bastiat’s signature term for the forced transfer of property through the legal system. for plunder to seem just and sacred to many consciences. Slavery, res- This word likely continues as "restrictions," referring to trade barriers or protectionism, which Bastiat frequently grouped with slavery as forms of legal plunder.