EASSY ON LAW AND PUBLIC OPINION:

The rule of law, its institutions and practices face perennial challenges
posed by public opinions in all societies. Tensions easily arise from time
to time out of material discrepancies between the outcome of legal
process and the public's perception and expectation of justice and
fairness.

Lawyers aspire to defend the ideal of autonomy and

independence of the law, in particular the judicial process, from public

opinions and interventions in order to ensure the impartial and reliable
delivery of justice as largely a professional exercise.

The democratic

reality, nonetheless, renders it impossible to insulate the legal process

from public questions, critiques or sometimes more direct pressures,
especially in an era with rapidly evolving mass media in both traditional
and non-traditional forms. The studies of law and public opinions aim to
advance the understanding of these potential challenges and proactively
search for possible reconciliatory strategies, both of which are critical for
the legal community to replenish and reinforce the legitimacy in its
relative autonomous status.

Such line of studies also goes deeper to

examine and reflect upon the fundamental democratic expectations of

law and lawyers within their respective social and political settings and
traditions.
If law is to be the expression of the will of the people, it must conform to
public opinion. If public opinion demands the repeal or enactment of any
law, the Government and for that matter the legislature cannot afford to
brush aside the demand for long.
The representatives of the people, who make the legislature, know that
they have ultimately to appeal to the electorate after the expiry of their
legal term of office.
If their actions are not approved by the electors at the general election,
there is no chance of their re-election. A true representative government
always ascertains the wishes of the people before attempting any kind of

legislation.
If it does not, the laws so enacted lose their appeal to the minds of the
citizens and the foundation of loyalty is shaken. Hume has justly
remarked that all governments, however bad, depend for their authority
on public opinion. If there is a wide gulf between law and public opinion,
it may lead either to widespread lawlessness 01 even to open rebellion.
But this is not the entire appraisal of the relationship between law and
public opinion. If the relationship between the two is to be really organic,
then, law should precede as well as succeed public opinion or, as Dr. PS.
Muhar puts it, law should be not only firmly rooted in public opinion
but should be a little ahead of it.
PS. Muhar aptly cites the example of the law abolishing suttee in India
and says, If Lord William Bentinck had taken only public opinion for his
guide when he abolished suttee in 1835, he would have had to wait much
longer for his great social reform. Law must also be normative, if the
State is to be the ideal of the aspirations of its people.