The law of God commands only the knowledge and love of God and the actions required for attaining that condition.
The formula of the universal law of nature commands, "act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature" (G 4 421).
Thus, the lawful power of making laws to command whole politic societies of men belongeth so properly unto the same entire societies, that for any prince…to exercise the same of himself…is no better than mere tyranny.
the lawful power of making laws to command whole politic societies of men belongeth so properly unto the same entire societies, that for any prince…to exercise the same of himself…is no better than mere tyranny.
We must do this, not because it is economically advantageous, although it is; not because the laws of God command it, although they do; not because people in other lands wish it so.
Because of this, both U.S. and international law recognize the doctrine of "command responsibility," wherein a commander can be held responsible for the actions of his subordinates.
In the Greek histories and literature of the 6th and 5th centuries bce, however, one finds the first articulation of ideas about law that have had enduring influence in the West: that law is a kind of command or prohibition with regard to what its subjects ought to do and that law is often accompanied by at least the threat of punishment or coercion by the state.
The second was an extension and revision of Hobbes's conception of sovereignty and the idea of law as a kind of command.
He defined law as primarily "an assemblage of signs declarative of a volition conceived or adopted by the sovereign of a state" and so followed Hobbes and earlier theorists in thinking about law on the model of command.
In turn, the agents sometimes choose not to arrest the drivers, turning them loose and following in hopes of ensnaring people further up the chain of command, law enforcement officials said.
