Society, State and the law

Mr. Justice Masodkar, after his last book "National Jurispru dence Need and Approach" has now approached the thorny subject of Society, State and Law.

The State is a complex entity and is regarded differently by different persons. One is apt to forget that John Stuart Mill uttered a truism, a long time ago, when he said that the worth of a State in the long run is the worth of the individuals compos ing it. Unfortunately the State is what the persons running it. make it. It is said that Government should be of laws and not men. This never obtains. Laws are made by men and although laws are meant not only for the governance of the people but also of Governments. Governments tend to get above laws and more so those who compose Governments. As they can make and unmake laws they can do good or evil as they choose.

Mr. Justice Masodkar notices how laws are made and unmade, how people in power seek to make themselves more powerful. how they bend the laws for their own purpose and how public opinion is crushed by those in power. After all the State was described as a Leviathan swallowing men and material, ostensibly for the public good, but mainly for the aggrandisement of the political power of the State and sometimes of the individuals composing the governing hierarchy in the State.

The learned author explores all the views and attitudes from the earliest times till today and analyses the complex relations between the State and the Individual and evaluates the worth of different forms of governments in the world. He thus deals with all forms from Monarchy to Communism and exposes the lessons which History has taught us in the experiments in all the diverse forms. He, however, seldom shows his own preferences except perhaps indirectly.