Importance Of The Harm Principle

The idea of the Harm principle creates a problem, and that is because it does not work

practically. Mills idea is important on the basis that human society always has the idea of thinking and

acting in a wrongful way and that society does not do things correctly. Therefore these actions that

society takes forms an open space in order for us to change or correct ourselves from our crime. This

open space will take shape as a discussion or debate, and these ideas that come through will shape our

society into a different direction. It comes to the conclusion that human society need this space

constantly because society does not get things rightfully done the first time. On the other hand, Devlin

claims that Mills is too idealistic. …show more content…
Society will create certain norms that are deemed acceptable or unacceptable, ultimately this is up to the society. Therefore since the harm principles promotes a truly individualistic

rights theory. The state cannot give the power to individuals to do what they please, that is not how

society will function, society will always come first. The state must worry not about the individual but

how their actions will affect the society as a whole. Therefore the state must protect society with their

justification through the norms of society. The community standards test allows for the state to decide if the action should be considered as

unlawful or wrongful. This test shows that it will judge the victims alleged crimes by people of the

society. This comes back to what Devlin was talking about; society will create norms that are deemed

acceptable and unacceptable. Now this test must be universal so that the context will not affect the

outcome of the conclusion. In the R. V. Butler case, the courts used the community standards test to

determine whether the movies Butler was distributing were deemed obscene. This leads to a problem

where this test must be applied all over Canada, but the store is only targeted to a certain