The law may be an ass, but is it our last hope to protect health?

The legal system, an ancient butt of jokes about its absurd rulings and quirks, may be the only authority standing between us and our self-inflicted doom. Wherever we look—where democratic rights are denied, where elected leaders ape unelected demagogues, where commercial interests steamroll public interest, or where powerful nations render multilateral organisations and international norms irrelevant—holding to the laws that govern individual rights and the responsibilities of nations is now of the greatest imperative. The power of law making, wielded by politicians, was demonstrated last week with two landmark UK parliamentary votes in favour of fundamental and historic changes to legislation. The first was to decriminalise abortion, meaning that women will no longer be punished by the legal system for a pregnancy termination (doi:10.1136/bmj.r1261).1 The law change is …