CHAPTER II 
SOCIAL CONTROL, SOCIAL INTERESTS, AND LEGAL 
CAPACITIES 
I. A Scheme of Social Control. From what has been said 
above we have learned that law is a scheme of social control. 
It is not the simple thing that a “command from a supe- 
rior to an inferior” would be. It is a complicated contriv- 
ance. It is a connected combination of things. It is a scheme. 
It is a scheme of social control. It is not a scheme of indi- 
vidual control. The individual is free to control his own 
conduct so long as he does not come into legal relations with 
his fellow-men. He may choose his own vocation and his own 
domicile, and he may regulate his own conduct in a thousand 
other ways, without any interference by the law, provided he 
alone is concerned. But when his conduct affects the lives 
of his fellow-men, there is a possibility of control by the law. 
When such control begins will be considered under the next 
heading. 
II. Social Interests. The law does not attempt to control 
all social relations. It controls them only when there is a 
social interest which requires such control. Social interests 
include the wants of the individual, the state, and the social 
group. As human beings come into closer and closer con- 
tact with each other their wants, or social interests, grow. 
Kant has truly said that if a man was alone in the world, or 
on a desert island, he would call nothing “his own” 
(proprius ) . What is true of external things is true of per- 
sonality. A solitary human being would have no social in- 
terests. But the more people are thrown into contact with 
each other, the more social interests they have. People in 
rural districts do not have so many social interests as people 
in urban communities. People in small urban communities 
do not have so many social interests as people in large cities. 
The more complex the social life, the more social interests 
there are. In the early history of the world there were not 
so many social interests as there are today. In the early 
history of our own country there were not so many social 
interests as there are today. At first the only social interest 
recognized was that in the preservation of the peace. Later 
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