What Is Manderson's Relationship To The Law

Manderson’s key claims revolve around the polarisation of the concepts of obedience and responsibility, specifically in association to a relationship with the law. He claims that in order to become a responsible legal subject, we are required to recognise differences between ourselves and others, thus demonstrating consideration, and ultimately love. Through a legal analysis of Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, Manderson explores Max’s entry into the law, describing him as having eventually ‘discarded the caput lupinum, and returned home a responsible legal subject’, due to his learning from transgressions with the law.
Adherence to laws anti-discrimination laws is a quintessential element of a responsible relationship to the law. As children, most of us are taught that we cannot discriminate others on the
basis of any differences they may have to us; but we are often not taught why.
In my personal experience, I have had to use my own initiative in order to discover the reasons behind these laws; hailing from a white, middle-class family, I do not have an innate sense of why discrimination is wrong. My entry into early adulthood was accompanied by a developing interest in social politics and justice, and therefore a growing awareness of how others perceive the world, based on their own experiences of socialisation within different communities; although there is no way for me to have a complete understanding of everyone’s perceptions. This experience compares to Manderson’s analysis of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, in that there is an obvious shift in the majority of children, from merely being obedient concerning a specific part of the law, to truly understanding the ‘positive constitutive force’ of love and the appreciation of differences upon which love is built. Attempts to teach children responsibility regarding
discrimination has recently been met with backlash, specifically concerning the Safe Schools Coalition Australia, which has been likened to indoctrination by the Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi. Unfortunately, this way of right-wing thinking is one of the many reasons young children are often not taught to think for themselves, but rather obey the rules of authority figures. With an underdeveloped sense of morals, the vast majority of children are not able to understand the concept of otherness, and therefore xenophobia, but as we develop an openness to others, we begin to learn love, thus beginning an ethical relationship with the law.
Although Manderson’s claims are not entirely flawless in that there is no definite time in which we suddenly become a responsible legal subject, as we are continually learning different aspects of law, his antithetical view of obedience and responsibility and analysis of this throughout Max’s story has prompted me to become aware of my own relationship with the law. Although mere subservience may be technically lawful, it is through our transgressions with the law that we learn to be conscientious of the repercussions of our actions, and considerate of those around us.