Statute

From FMOTL Wiki

A Statute is a Legislated Rule of a Society.

It is often stated as "A Statute is a Legislated Rule of a Society, given the force of law by the consent of the Society's Members". This shortform is possible to produce by considering the nature and characteristics of "a Society"

Subtly distinct from law, but often mistaken to be "the law", a Statute is a written rule which either:

• attempts to codify the agreements already practiced commonly (or implicitly) amongst the Members, or
• attempts to create a new rule for the benefit of the Members.

In the first instance, consent implicitly exists as the Members already practice the rule that is to be written down (i.e. legislated).

It is the second instance, where the creation of new rules is often abused by the legislators (those who write the legislation), that creates abominations. In many cases, rules are written that benefit particular parties to the detriment of the rest of the Membership, with a hope that the written rules will be given the force of law despite this.

In some Societies this is compounded by the fact that there are no recognised mechanisms by which a Member can withhold consent. This results in the situation whereby consent cannot then be given or withheld, since there is no facility to choose whether to give or withhold it. This results in the "assumption" that consent has been given (on the one hand), while it has actually not been given in reality.