Law as Faith: The Metaphysical Dream for the Land of the Free

Abstract

What is law in the United States of America? To ask what something “is” is to invoke the philosophical category of ontology, examining the isness, the being, the existential nature of a thing. The answer to the ontological question of law has remained relatively straight forward for most of human history: law is something found in the lungs of a ruler––“whatever he says.” That same question, however, is far more complicated, and frustratingly so, in “the land of the free.” What law means in one country might vary in another, yes, but why and how? What is it precisely that makes American law distinguishable from North Korean law? Dating back to the seventeenth century colonies, the American people shared essentially the same answer to basic ontological questions. What is marriage? What is a family? What is a human being? There was little to no dispute about the answer to these questions. Similarly, the ontological status of American law went undisputed for most of American history. But as formally accepted definitions of marriage, family, and life are relativized into epistemological oblivion, the ontological status of American law spins curiously in the background.