Quote of the Day: Law is the unconscious creation of society

Law is not a body of commands imposed upon society from without, either by an individual sovereign or superior, or by a sovereign body constituted by representatives of society itself.  It exists at all times as one of the elements of society springing directly from habit and custom.  It is therefore the unconscious creation of society, or in other words, a growth.

This is from page 21 of the American Bar Association’s publication of James C. Carter’s 1890 essay “The Ideal and the Actual in the Law“. The source of the above quote Café Hayek’s prolific blogger and economic professor Don Boudreaux expounds on the James Carter quote

Legislators are legislation-makers; they are not lawmakers.

True law can no more be consciously designed and created outside of the myriad social interactions that give rise to true law than can a true price be consciously chosen outside of the myriad economic interactions that give rise to true prices.  Commands that look to some people like law can be, and are, consciously designed and created.  But these are not law.  And because commands typically run against the spontaneous forces that give rise to law, such commands are typically against the law – just as a government-imposed price (or price control) results in something that looks like a price but is, in fact, not a true price at all.