Once, the law was not something imposed from above but something woven into daily life, shaped by those who lived under it. Indigenous societies, village councils, and early republics understood that law should be a living, communal force, not a tool for domination. But as civilization grew, the law was professionalized, centralized, and, ultimately, stolen from the people.
Modern legal systems have drifted so far from the people that laws often feel like arbitrary burdens rather than collective agreements. People do not see themselves in the rules they must follow because they had no hand in shaping them. This disconnect breeds resentment, disobedience, and a widespread sense that the law exists to control, not to serve. The process by which laws are made today—crafted in backrooms by unelected lobbyists, passed through legislatures more concerned with political survival than justice, and enforced by bureaucracies with little transparency—alienates people from the very system that is supposed to uphold order. A society where laws are written by the few and imposed on the many is not a democracy; it is a managerial state disguised as one.
As Fritjof Capra and Ugo Mattei explain in The Ecology of Law: “The process of professionalization has taken law away from communities, expropriating the most fundamental ‘common’—a community’s control over its own legal order.” This is not a minor grievance. This is the foundation of modern alienation. The law has become an external force, written by people who will never feel its consequences, enforced by institutions that answer only to themselves.
Consider how the modern legislative process works. A law is written by a team of lawyers, influenced by lobbyists, passed by politicians who barely read it, and then applied to millions of people who had no voice in its creation. The result? Laws that serve corporate interests over human ones, that criminalize survival while legalizing exploitation, and that generate confusion rather than clarity. A citizen under such a system is not a participant but a subject.
Compare this to traditional societies, where legal decisions were made in open assemblies. In Iceland’s early Althing, any free man could stand and argue his case. Among the Iroquois, decisions were made by consensus, with laws reflecting generations of careful deliberation. In these systems, laws evolved as an organic expression of community values—not as decrees handed down from an invisible bureaucracy.
A true legal system is one that is responsive, participatory, and adaptive. The more distant a law is from the people who must obey it, the less legitimate it becomes. This is why centralized empires collapse under the weight of their own legal codes while decentralized societies endure. A law imposed without consent is tyranny, no matter how elegant its wording.
Federal and state laws may provide expediency and consistency, but they should not all be set in stone. A just legal system must evolve with the needs of the people, remaining flexible enough to serve rather than dominate.
Therefore, under Folklaw:
The Council of each municipality may supersede by decree any national or state law. No law may be imposed upon a community without its approval. The municipality shall make its will known to the State, which will in turn makes its will know to the federal government.
The privatization of natural resources, public spaces, and essential services erodes community well-being, concentrates power, and undermines ecological balance.
Discussions
There are no discussions yet.