There is a fairly obvious sense in which the law conditions or even determines, rather than simply reflects, a society's shared sense of right and wrong (or - which is not the same thing - acceptable and unacceptable). The clearest instance in this generation has been the equality legislation, which has not simply placed on the statute book a prohibition against discrimination on grounds of race or gender, but has generated a fundamental change in the common sense of what kinds of conduct and language towards one's fellow citizens are acceptable or right. This is statute law at its best - picking up and consolidating an incipient and fragile change of social mood, giving it legitimacy and backing it with legal redress. We have certainly not eliminated racial and sexual discrimination, but few would dispute that things would be markedly worse without the legislation.

LRB 22 May 1997 | PDF Download