有不同种类的法律:道德的，自然的，政治的，等等。有些是规范的，比如道德，意味着你应该遵守它。有些是描述性的，比如自然法则，用来描述事物的状态。什么是法律?一个简单的答案是，议员说什么就说什么。我们应该仅仅因为法律是法律就遵守法律吗?肯介绍嘉宾，来自耶鲁大学的朱尔斯·科尔曼。科尔曼说，我们可以从法律体系的意义上区分什么是法律，从法律与其他规则的区别意义上区分法律，从地方法律的意义上区分法律。第二种意思通常是立法者的一些积极贡献。理论上，立法者的行为有什么限制吗? Legal institutions claim to be legitimate and also that there are no areas of life that they are bound not to enter in principle. Constitutions can put limits on law though. However, the source of the law, not the content, is supposed to give us reason to act on the law.

Thomas Aquinas thought that an unjust law is not a law at all. Are laws constrained to be moral? Laws are a bunch of social facts. What makes them any more important than facts about mountains? One view is that fear of sanctions makes law more important. Others think that the normative force of law is grounded in morality, so all laws must have some minimal moral content. Ken asks, even if laws should be constrained by morality, aren't law making and law makers not bound by that? Police and courts are still bound by immoral laws. Coleman responds by saying that there are constitutional constraints on legislation and enforcement, although immorality itself can't stop something from being a law. Are legal systems dependent on which moral system is in place? Coleman thinks not.

Coleman thinks the law doesn't mean just what a judge says it means because a judge can be wrong about it. What decides what is a law and what is an (mis)interpretation of it? How much influence does normal usage influence law? Does the intent of the legislature matter? Is civil disobedience admissible? It depends on how we take the law as a practical authority. Once we decide that, we have to figure out when it is reasonable to ignore it. Is there a tight connection between law and morality?

• Roving Philosophical Report(Seek to 04:20): Polly Stryker interviews David Solmet, a man who protests what he considers unfair laws and legal institutions through civil disobedience.

• Sixty-Second Philosopher(Seek to 50:00): Ian Shoales gives a quick overview of a great figure in the history of law, the Athenian magistrate Draco.