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A law has no inherent legitimacy simply from being a law. It must either reflect a social more or uphold public safety or, at the very least, be useful as a rule.

Should people be paid for the work they do? Yes. Should people be paid for the work of others? Maybe, if they contributed in some way. Should we pay an academic journal which charges fees for people to submit to them? No, that's absurd.



I think OP's point is that breaking any law undermines the principle of rule of law in general.


And I think that is an absurd conclusion. Nobody seriously thinks violating the speed limit or ripping your own DVDs is on the same level as murder or fraud, yet the former two are routinely violated to society’s benefit, with no impact on murder prosecution.


I do not subscribe to it myself, but "dura lex sed lex" is literally millennia old, so it's hardly an obscure notion.


It may have had more value in more savage times millenia ago before the proliferation of very many victimless crimes.




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