# VI: Law explained — The Social Contract

> Chapter companion for The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

## What happens

Rousseau defines law as an act of the general will, applicable only to general objects and never to particular persons or actions. He argues that the people, being subject to laws, must be their authors, but they require a legislator to guide them. He distinguishes law from mere decrees, and declares that any state governed by laws is a republic, where the public interest rules.

## Themes in this chapter

### The General Will

Rousseau asserts that law is an act of the general will, which is always right and directed toward the common good.

### Sovereignty and Government

He distinguishes between sovereign acts (laws) and governmental decrees, emphasizing that the sovereign cannot command particular matters.

### The Role of the Legislator

Rousseau introduces the necessity of a legislator to enlighten the people and guide them to see the good, as the general will needs guidance.

## Character check-ins

### Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The author and primary voice, defining law and the role of the general will.

## Key lines

> Laws are, properly speaking, only the conditions of civil association. The people, being subject to the laws, ought to be their author

Laws are essentially the terms of social union, and since the people must obey them, they should also be the ones who create them.

_Rousseau emphasizes popular sovereignty and self-legislation._

> The general will is always in the right, but the judgment which guides it is not always enlightened.

The collective will of the people always aims at what is good, but it may not always see clearly what that good is.

_Highlights the need for a legislator to educate the public._

> When the whole people decrees for the whole people, it is considering only itself; and if a relation is then formed, it is between two aspects of the entire object, without there being any division of the whole. This act is what I call a law.

When the entire citizen body makes a decision that applies to everyone collectively, it is a law—a decree that is both general in its source and general in its object.

_Rousseau's definition of law as an act of the general will concerning general matters._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/vi-law
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters