Legal Argument
The basis behind the argument of the term is based on whether it should be considered just and legal for a law to be enacted that treats various parties unequally. For example, in the United States Constitution the prohibition on Bills of Attainder require that laws do not single out a single person or group of persons for specific treatment.
Another example is the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Both sides argue that the other side is or has traditionally been singled out and therefore the law is either needed or unnecessary. In some cases, such as those with social implications, the universal definition of rights also often conflict with other, often more regional or local, laws that require certain public standards or behavior based on cultural norms.
Read more about this topic: Special Rights
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or argument:
“If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“The argument ad feminam, all the old knives
that have rusted in my back, I drive in yours,
ma semblable, ma soeur!”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)