Frederic Bastiat on Objective Law

[W]hen [the law] has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it ha acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy it own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscroupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense. {Frederic Bastiat, The Law (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2004), 6.