How the American legal system protects individual rights and affects law-abiding citizens' security

America Legal System and Personal Peace and Security

American Legal system and personal peace and security

The American legal system generally was formulated with particular functions in mind. It is important to note that there is not a single legal system in the world that was put up to deny the citizens of that particular country peace and security. All legal systems even among the remote democracies and civilizations are geared towards giving peace to the occupants of that land. Indeed most of out laws are extracted from the principles of law of natural justice. The natural justice demands that every person is treated fairly in a bid to maintain the cosmic balance and tranquility.

The laws of the U.S.A. can be summarized as meant to serve the following purposes generally according to Messick (2011);

(a).

Deter Wrongful Conduct: since human beings tend to fear when a prohibition is placed such as taking consequences of an action, there is that general use of the law to stop people from engaging in illegal acts and these can only be implemented by the legal system.

(b).

Facilitate Voluntary Exchange: people tend to have more confidence in dealings or transactions that are done or bound by the law and legal system. This is where the law and the attorneys come in handy. There is a facilitation aspect that the law holds in ensuring every American gets a good deal for the money he has put in a transaction. In turn many are spared the stress of conmen and live in peace.

(c).

Resolve Private Disputes: there are disputes that are experienced in the daily lives of Americans, for instance the domestic violence and neighborly disputes. In a magnified sense the disputes could even be the labor disputes that if not controlled could spiral easily into industrial actions and state anarchy within sectors of the economy. It is in light of these that the legal system will come in to help solve the disputes and further enhance peace and security for the greater population.

(d).

Redress abuses of Power: the law is the only instrument that can control the power of every individual in the American society. If every person is left to do as they please with the powers they hold then it would be a state of anarchy. This is even applicable to the head of state since his powers are as well controlled by the law of the land as implemented by the legal syste.

(e)

Educative function: the legal system has a fundamental role in educating the entire American population as concerns the laws, excesses and controls of the limits to which one can act. The constitution could sound complex and some clauses not well understood by a majority of the American population. As a matter of fact, the pages are way too many to dedicate time to, the legal system steps in to interpret and educate the general public on the meaning and application of the numerous clauses of the constitution.

Legal system suppressing personal peace and security

There are various arguments fronted that try to put forth how the legal system may got, is getting or has been getting on the way of personal peace and security, some discussed briefly below.

It is widely held that the peace of the nation overrides that of an individual and if comes a situation where that nation is under siege from external forces, then a war may break out regardless of the peace and security of one person. For instance the war in Afghanistan, the government knew clearly there would be retaliatory attacks that would put the lives of some Americans, especially those in the war fronts.

The other issue has to do with legal government intrusion. There are some instances where a search may be conducted like in the "stop and frisk" instances along the highways which do not call for a warrant. It is provided by the court as an interpreter of the law that upon suspicion of a felony or unusual conduct, the police officer may conduct a "pat-down search" on the spot. However the officer must point out specific tangible reason and facts prompting the search and must of necessity stick to that reason. Therefore, his questioning must focus only on the purpose of the search and the search must be temporary.

For instance if the police officer suspects that the person must be carrying contrabands, once he searches and questions him on the same and finds him clean, he cannot go ahead and question him on legality of his possession of the car. In the process of the search one may feel some infringement into his privacy and far worse is if the person has no contrabands on him but some socially shaming items like condoms extracted from his pocket in front of his children can feel like a gross intrusion into privacy.

The unreasonable government seizures, from which the Fourth Amendment of the constitution protects us is also a matter of infringement of privacy (Lectric Law Library, 2011). Though the authority must have a warrant of search and seizure, they may end up seizing irrelevant material and private files like diary, which at the end of it may be found to be having no relevance to the case, yet, it would be too late since our private information is already out there. Even worse, after the 9/11 incidence, the law allows for seizure without permit in a situation where the authority have enough convincing reasons that without the seizure of the object, there could be a greater risk posed to the wider public. For instance, if a police officer or detective who had bee following clue of a bomb being made, get sight of a briefcase similar to the one he has been following, then he can seize the briefcase for inspection since he has no time to run to court before he comes back to get it, it will have gone off.

During the seizures, there is obvious disruption of peace since they come at whatever time they get the court order and never place and appointment with the suspect. It could be the time of your sleep and rest and peace of mind yet they disrupt the peace, never mind u may be proven innocent later on.