What Is Law ?

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of theindividual right to lawful defense.

　　Each of us has a natural right--from God--to defend his person,his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirementsof life, and the preservation of any one of them is completelydependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are ourfaculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is propertybut an extension of our faculties?

　　If every person has the right to defend -- even by force -- hisperson, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group ofmen have the right to organize and support a common force to protectthese rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right -- itsreason for existing, its lawfulness -- is based on individual right.And the common force that protects this collective right cannotlogically have any other purpose or any other mission than that forwhich it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannotlawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of anotherindividual, then the common force -- for the same reason -- cannotlawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property ofindividuals or groups.

　　Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary toour premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individualrights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us todestroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual actingseparately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others,does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies tothe common force that is nothing more than the organized combinationof the individual forces?

　　If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: Thelaw is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It isthe substitution of a common force for individual forces. And thiscommon force is to do only what the individual forces have a naturaland lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, andproperties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice toreign over us all.