What is law? The secular functional tests.

2026-01-10T12:37:24+00:00

Below is a practical checklist of Bastiat-style tests you can apply to any policy to decide whether, by his criteria, it is **law‑ful** or **un‑law‑ful**, expressed in secular and functional terms.

YES LL BECAUSE I LITERATE, LOSERS
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## 1. Rights-Protection Test

**Question:**
Does this policy exist primarily to protect individuals against violations of their basic rights—**life, liberty, and property**—or is it trying to do something else?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It prevents or punishes physical aggression, theft, fraud, or coercion.
- It organizes common defense (police, courts, basic security) so that individuals don’t have to carry out private retaliation.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- Its main purpose is to manage outcomes (e.g., set prices, guarantee jobs, provide benefits) rather than stop rights violations.
- It uses the state’s force to promote particular lifestyles, moral codes, or economic patterns.

**Functional idea:**
Law is a **defensive mechanism**, not a tool for shaping society’s positive goals.

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## 2. Non-Aggression / Negative-Law Test

**Question:**
Does the policy only **forbid aggression and protect against harm**, or does it **compel** people to do things they have not chosen?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It is “negative” in nature: it says, “You may not assault, steal from, defraud, or otherwise violate others’ rights.”
- It uses force only in response to prior or imminent rights violations.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It is “positive” in nature: it says, “You must participate, fund, or behave in certain ways, even if you are not harming anyone.”
- It compels actions like mandatory charity, compulsory membership in state schemes, or forced participation in “public” projects that go beyond self-defense.

**Functional idea:**
Legitimate law **stops** injustice; it does not **command** virtue, generosity, or social cooperation by force.

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## 3. Legal Plunder Test

**Core principle:**
Bastiat’s key criterion for un-law-fulness is **legal plunder**: when the law is used to take from some to give to others.

**Question:**
Does the policy **take wealth or advantage from one group and transfer it to another** by force, under the color of law?

- **Law-ful if:**
- Any taking (e.g., taxation) is strictly confined to funding the protection of everyone’s life, liberty, and property.
- It does not favor specific industries, classes, regions, or interest groups.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It grants subsidies, special protections, or benefits to some at others’ expense.
- It uses instruments such as targeted tariffs, industry-specific protections, forced welfare transfers, “guaranteed” income/jobs, or other schemes that forcibly redistribute resources.

**Functional idea:**
If a private individual doing the same thing would be called **theft or extortion**, then the state doing it via policy is **legal plunder** and un‑law‑ful in Bastiat’s sense.

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## 4. Universality and Impartiality Test

**Question:**
Is the policy **truly general**—the same rules, applied to everyone equally—or does it **privilege or burden** particular groups?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It is **universal in scope** and **non-discriminatory**: the same protections and the same restrictions apply to all individuals.
- It does not create legal categories with special rights or exemptions.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It treats groups differently, giving some legal privilege (e.g., monopolies, protections, exemptions) or placing special burdens on disfavored groups.
- It is effectively written “for” or “against” specific classes, professions, or interests.

**Functional idea:**
Legitimate law is a neutral set of **general rules**; once it becomes a tool for “our group vs. their group,” it is perverted.

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## 5. Scope and Social-Engineering Test

**Question:**
Does the policy **confine itself** to preventing and punishing rights violations, or does it **organize** and **direct** areas like education, religion, charity, or economic life?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It leaves decisions about education, charity, religion, work, and lifestyle to individuals and voluntary associations.
- It only intervenes when there is actual or imminent rights-violation (e.g., abuse, fraud, coercion).
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It sets up compulsory schooling systems, official moral or religious codes, mandatory welfare schemes, or economic plans that people must support or obey regardless of consent.
- It tries to “engineer” social outcomes (e.g., equality of material conditions, uniformity of beliefs) by force.

**Functional idea:**
Law should **protect free choices**, not replace them with a legislator’s blueprint for how people should live.

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## 6. Consent and Self-Ownership Test

**Question:**
Does the policy **respect each person’s self-ownership** and the fruits of their labor, or does it treat individuals as resources to be directed?

- **Law-ful if:**
- It assumes individuals own their bodies, time, and legitimately acquired property.
- It does not commandeer their labor or resources for purposes other than common defense and justice.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- It obliges people to fund or participate in endeavors they would not voluntarily support, when those endeavors go beyond protecting rights.
- It presumes that a portion of everyone’s labor and property is available to be allocated according to some social plan.

**Functional idea:**
Individuals are not means to collective ends; policies that treat them as such are un‑law‑ful in Bastiat’s framework.

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## 7. Systemic Consequences Test

**Question:**
If generalized, does this policy tend toward a system of **universal legal plunder** and conflict, or toward **stable justice** and peaceful cooperation?

- **Law-ful if:**
- Its generalization leads to a society where people mostly interact by voluntary exchange, under equal protection of rights.
- It tends to reduce conflict by giving everyone a clear, limited framework of protection.
- **Un-law-ful if:**
- Its pattern—“use law to get benefits for my group”—would push every group to fight for control of the state, leading to permanent conflict and widespread plunder.
- It blurs the line between justice and injustice, encouraging people to see whatever is legal as automatically right.

**Functional idea:**
A law‑ful framework **stabilizes** expectations and cooperation; systemic legal plunder makes politics a war of all against all.

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## How to Use These Tests in Practice

When evaluating a specific policy (tax, subsidy, regulation, welfare program, education law, etc.), walk through these questions:

1. **Rights-Protection:**
- What concrete rights-violations does this policy prevent or punish?
- If none, why is force being used?

2. **Non-Aggression / Negative-Law:**
- Is the policy only stopping harm, or is it commanding positive behaviors?

3. **Legal Plunder:**
- Who pays, who gains?
- Would the same transfer be wrongful if done by a private person?

4. **Universality:**
- Does the rule apply identically to everyone, regardless of class or category?

5. **Scope / Social Engineering:**
- Is this about defense of rights, or about shaping how people live, believe, work, or trade?

6. **Consent / Self-Ownership:**
- Could individuals reasonably opt out if they disagree, or is participation coerced?
- Does it override individuals’ control of their own labor and property for non-defensive ends?

7. **Systemic Effects:**
- If all groups used law this way, would we get general justice or general plunder?

- If a policy **passes all or almost all** of these tests, Bastiat would likely consider it **law‑ful** (legitimate law).
- If it **fails one or more key tests**—especially the **legal plunder** and **scope** tests—he would classify it as a **perversion of law**, i.e., **un‑law‑ful**, even if it is formally enacted and widely approved.