Law evolved by cultural selection

Law and order is a wonderful human artifact that was not so much intelligently designed by humans as it evolved by cultural evolution into a system whose value people can appreciate even when they cannot explain how the working parts function; its built-in excusing conditions are set at a pragmatic, non-metaphysical line determined by general facts about human nature, since setting the bar higher would excuse too many and erode respect for law while setting it lower would be too punitive.