alt Hacker News> Law as a tool to punish those who have committed a prohibited act
You're thinking of criminal law. And it's not just some group's rules and norms - there already exists familial or social group punishment for that. Criminal law is prosecuted by the State. It's the code of conduct of the society you exist in.
If you want a thought experiment for what life would be like without organised society, read Leviathan
Hence why we accept State governance and law (to a greater or lesser extent, obviously people protest specific laws and injustices and what's on the statute books changes on a regular basis), because the alternative to law is "nature", aka bigger-army diplomacy. Anarchy doesn't free people, it only gives freedom to those with existing power to disempower others. Those with superior power will simply rob, rape, kill or enslave everyone else.
States exist to secure their territory from those sort of external threats, and incubate an economy inside their borders, which aspires to bring wealth and happiness. The criminal law is put in place by those with the monopoly on legitimate violence, often encoding the views of the population, to keep their society running.
> You're thinking of criminal law. And it's not just some group's rules and norms - there already exists familial or social group punishment for that. Criminal law is prosecuted by the State. It's the code of conduct of the society you exist in.
What I meant is more about why and how laws come to be, which depends on what we think they’re for. Hobbes’ point of view is one. Locke and Rousseau had different opinions.
For example, one can view criminal law as a punishing tool, like gp, whose only purpose is to punish the act once discovered. You criminalise duels to punish duelists because murder is bad and no murder or attempted murder should go unpunished, and associate a great punishment because murder is a very bad thing.
But you can also criminalize duels to prevent or reduce the incidence of duels, and associate a great punishment to it to deter your stupid hot-heated young nobles from going around each other. Still criminal law, but this time both as social engineering and deterrence.
It’s been a long time since I read Hobbes. Should definitely go back to it.