The term "effective" means to produce the intended or expected result. In other words if a law is effective then it achieves its stated aim and/or objectives. The main function of law is to enable individuals to live peacefully together. Laws allow individuals to live and work cooperatively towards meeting their needs for the benefit of all members of the community. This whole concept or meaning is known as Social Cohesion. The term "cohesion" means the act of uniting or sticking together. Laws aim to "unite" or "stick" society together.
The characteristics of effective laws need to be expressed in such of the following ways: they need to be clearly expressed and easy to understand, able to be learnt, acceptable to the community as a whole, stable but, yet flexible, consistent, able to be enforced and able to reflect changing values. .
An important characteristic of an effective law is "Clarity"; the law needs to be expressed clearly and well understood for it to work. "Knowledge" needs to be expressed as well to .
make sure individuals know how close to what is right and what is wrong. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for individuals to go out and break that law. In this case the law would need to be easily read, understood and clear on what that law is all about.
"Clarity" needs to be understood especially focused on the average person and not on the well or better educated individual. .
A law generally must be accepted by the community if it reflects the needs and values of that community. "Acceptance" of the law is important. If a community is not looking to accept the law then people will be reluctant to obey it, no matter what values it holds for the greater good. .
For a law to be effective it must be both stable and flexible. This may seem to be a contradiction, but at its best it is a balance. On the one hand there must be "Stability".
If individuals are to be able to behave according to the law they must know what that law is.
