Humans make laws for humans. To benefit us and protect us. We rely on and trust these laws, especially when we find ourselves in a precarious situation before the court, whether due to innocent circumstances or our own misbehavior. Additionally, laws enable us to assert our legal rights before the state. Laws are equally applicable to everyone here and are accessible.

However, there are also moments when we feel disappointed by laws, the judge, and the court, feeling that we’ve been wronged, and that injustice prevails. Sometimes, we even lose our faith, value, and appreciation for laws. This happens when we witness dangerous criminals coming out of jail only after a few years and then committing the same crimes again and again. There are cases, however, where influential individuals bend the laws to their advantage, often at the expense of the powerless and the poor.

On the other hand, a state without laws is akin to an uncultivated or wild vineyard. It is left to us to fight for fair laws and to protect these laws, even at moments when we feel discouraged and powerless. And above all, to choose wisely who we let decide to make laws.

At this point, I would like to conclude this prompt with a book quote. It’s an excerpt from Franz Kafka’s short story “Before the Law.”

Before the Law stands a doorkeeper. To this doorkeeper comes a man from the country, asking for entry into the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot grant him entry now. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to enter later. ‘It is possible,’ says the doorkeeper, ‘but not now.’ Since the gate to the Law stands open as always and the doorkeeper steps aside, the man bends down to look through the gate into the interior. When the doorkeeper notices this, he laughs and says, ‘If it tempts you so much, try to go in despite my prohibition. But note: I am powerful. And I am only the lowest doorkeeper. From hall to hall, there are doorkeepers, each more powerful than the last. Even I cannot bear the sight of the third one.’ The man from the country had not expected such difficulties; the Law should always be accessible to everyone, he thinks, but when he now looks at the doorkeeper more closely in his fur coat, his large, pointed nose, the long, thin, black Tatar beard, he decides to wait until he gets permission to enter.

~Franz Kafka~

©2025, Vasiliki Papadopoulou.