Ignorance of the law is not an excuse The fundamental policy in the operation of a legal system is that
ignorantia juris non excusat (
ignorance of the law is no excuse). It would completely undermine the enforcement of any law if the person potentially at fault was able to raise as a successful defence that he or she had not been aware of the particular law. For this reason, all the main
legislatures publish their laws freely whether in hard copy or on the
Internet, while others offer them for sale to the public at affordable prices. Because everyone is entitled to access the laws as they affect their personal lives, all adults are assumed responsible enough to research the law before they act. If they fail to do so, they can hardly complain if their acts prove unlawful, no matter how transient they may be within the
jurisdiction. The only exception to this rule excuses those of reduced
capacity, whether as
infants or through mental illness (for example, see the principle of
doli incapax which raises an irrebuttable presumption in
criminal law that an infant is incapable of committing a crime).
Sanctity of life Underpinning most social, moral and religious systems is the policy of
sanctity of life (also
culture of life). In English criminal law, for example,
duress is not allowed as a defence to
murder because no threat is supposed to overcome a person's moral aversion to taking the life of another. Lord Jauncy in
R v Gotts [1992] 2 AC 412 stated: In refusal of treatment and
euthanasia, commission and
omission by
doctors and
hospital authorities resulting in the death of
patients has become of increasing significance as societies debate whether the duty to preserve life outweighs the right of the autonomous patient to choose death. More contentious are those situations in which the patient is unable to make the choice personally, e.g. because in a
persistent vegetative state or
en ventre sa mere, i.e. a child in the womb.
Doctrine of evasion Similarly, in many branches of law, the
doctrine of evasion prevents persons, both natural and artificial, from evading the application of obligations and liabilities already attaching to them. This represents a practical application of the policy that, as an outcome of the
social contract, all persons owing
allegiance to a state should be entitled to assume that everyone will receive fair and equal treatment before the law, i.e. there will be no favouritism or preferential treatment to any person by virtue of their
rank or
status within
society. As such, this is an exception to the policy in the
law of contract which usually allows the parties autonomy to enter into whatever agreement they want and which might otherwise be taken to permit the parties to exclude the normal operation of the law as between themselves (see the policy of
freedom of contract).
Children There are policies specific to all the main branches of law. Hence, one of the policies in
family law is
parens patriae, i.e. that the state is the default
parent for all those
children within its
jurisdiction and that, if it is necessary to protect the interests of the child, the state will usurp the rights of the natural parents and assert its own rights as every child's
legal guardian. Within the
EU, the right of the child to be heard in any proceedings is a fundamental right provided in Article 24
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The views of the child shall be considered on matters which concern him or her in accordance with age and maturity. It also provides that the child's
best interest shall be the primary consideration in all actions relating to children, whether taken by public authorities or private institutions.
Marriage A policy which overlaps between family law and
contract law is
favor matrimonii which requires that any marriage entered into with a genuine commitment should be held valid unless there is some good reason to the contrary, matching contract law, where the preference is always to give effect to the genuine expectation of the parties. == Discussion ==