its okay to break the law, depending on the circumstances?

Yes, in most incidences to save a life.

There are laws AGAINST under age driving & well there should be to keep person's who have not reached the age of maturity from using potentially lethal vehicles. That's the letter of the law.

But the spirit of the law would allow a 12y.o. to drive their parent from a farming accident site into a town with a hospital to save their parent's life.

The law, per se, has not been broken b/c the pre-teen was not driving for immature reasons. The child was mature enough to assess the need for medical treatment & sought it out the only or quickest means possible.

(This scenario assumes no cell phone signals & that child had already been taught to drive farm equipment.)

The spirit of the law should always over ride the letter b/c words & definitions change over time. One should recall to mind WHY the law was established in the 1st place. WHAT was law trying to prevent or encourage as responsible civic duty?

I think your approach should be that following only the letter of the law destroys mercy and maims justice. You have the easy side. Be happy :)

Example:

There are two car crashes, each caused by a driver going far too fast. By the letter of the law, each is as culpable as the other, yet if one was speeding for the thrill of it, while the other was trying to get a badly wounded person to hospital before they died, is it reasonable to treat them both the same?

In court, the thrill rider admits he was seeking only his own selfish amusement and shows no remorse for what he has done, openly amused at having caused the crash.

By contrast, the person trying to get his friend to hospital is horrified and remorseful that more people have been hurt and deathly worried about them as well as his friend.

Is it right to treat both exactly the same? The letter of the law says it must be so; the spirit says the second driver is deserving of mercy if Justice is truly to be served.

Hope that helps :)

I would suggest you start with Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience," and consider the example of Mahatma Ghandi and then the experience of Dr. Reverend martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for civil rights for African-American citizens of America. It wasn't "okay" to break the law. But it was necessary to break the law through peaceful protests against state sanctioned segregation and for equal rights. The protests and especially the violent response from police forces and white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan could not be ignored, and what cannot be ignored must be processed through the American political system and that always leads to change, albeit at a pace which cannot be predicted ahead of time.

I don't quite understand the "spirit" of the law versus the "letter" of the law. Ghandi and King knew they were breaking the letter of various civil and criminal laws. They were not motivated by the "spirit" of the law, they were motivated by a fierce desire for justice for all and committed to defeating the legal mechanisms that permitted individuals and governments to lawfully deny equal opportunity and justice for all.

I wish you good luck in your debate.

Look up and read the story "Grand Jury declines to indict Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney."

She openly admitted that she committed battery on a Police Officer by "hitting" him. NO CHARGES. . .

Two years ago I was falsely accused of "pushing" a Police Officer in my home-I NEVER TOUCHED THAT OFFICER. He clearly was retaliating due to my "verbal tone." The State CHARGED me with a Felony.

I vehemently fought the charge for 14 month's and $4,000 later, because I refused to plea bargain to a crime I didn't commit. The State finally "dropped charges."

So, yes unfortunately I guess there are special Circumstances for being allowed to break the Law in our Country. . .

Sometimes it is necessary to break a law in order to live or make progress.

You have to keep in mind that their are lots of laws on the books because of stupid people doing stupid things sometime in the past. For example: Gun laws...lots of stupid people have done stupid things with guns and that's why their are so many laws involving guns. Using a gun to defend one's self or another may break one of those laws but it would be the right thing to do to protect.

Good luck!

Well, in my opinion, it's absolutely fine to break the law, as long as it isn't hurting anybody too much by doing it. Shoplifting, pirated programs, stuff like that, it's all fine.

Remember though, the cops don't care. They'll punish you anyway. They make a living doing it, and it's their job.

So break the law on your own risk, or find a way around it.

Let's see, Murder is illegal, right. But if someone holds a knife to my neck and I happen to have a gun in my purse imma shoot you.

to every human made law their is a loop hole

take a shower i can smell you from here