The PLEA: The Bathroom Barrister

Speed limits determine how fast we can drive. Litter regulations are designed to keep our communities clean. Food inspections are meant to ensure what we eat is safe.

These three simple examples demonstrate three ways that law is all around us. But think more deeply about these examples, and you’ll also realize that they demonstrate that law provides order for our diverse society.

So what is law? Laws are democratically-constructed and broadly accepted rules meant to serve several purposes:

• Law supports broad social values with goals such as promoting democratic processes, protecting the right to a fair trial, prescribing honest business practices, and establishing social programs.
• Law is a way of resolving disputes in an orderly manner following legal rules.
• Law protects citizens, their property, and rights.
• Law provides a framework for order in our society and ensures some degree of predictability and stability.

This issue of The PLEA takes an uncanny approach to examining these purposes of law. From a quick introduction to laws and regulations associated with the washroom to an in-depth case study of the sewers of London, what will emerge from The Bathroom Barrister is a better understanding of yet another way that the law is all around us. So sit down and settle in for a new perspective on a room common to everybody.