Civil society

Civil society

Main article: Civil society

A march in Washington D.C. during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in 1963

The term "civil society" dates back to John Locke, who saw civil society as being of people who have "a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them."^[122] German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel also distinguished the "state" from "civil society" (Zivilgesellschaft) in Elements of the Philosophy of Right.^[123] Hegel believed that civil society and the state were polar opposites, within the scheme of his dialectic theory of history.^[124] Civil society is necessarily a source of law, by being the basis from which people form opinions and lobby for what they believe law should be. As Australian barrister and author Geoffrey Robertson QC wrote of international law,

"one of its primary modern sources is found in the responses of ordinary men and women, and of the non-governmental organizations which many of them support, to the human rights abuses they see on the television screen in their living rooms."^[125]

Freedom of speech, freedom of association and many other individual rights allow people to meet together, discuss, criticise and hold to account their governments, from which the basis of a deliberative democracy is formed. The more people are involved with, concerned by and capable of changing how political power is exercised over their lives, the more acceptable and legitimate the law becomes to the people. Developed political parties, debating clubs, trade unions, impartial media, business and charities are all part of a healthy civil society.