INCEST: Murder of the Soul: Chapter Two 2. The Functions of Law Law is an indispensable social need for the preservation of the entirety of society; it consists of general and binding rules which were based on preserving and maintaining stability and order14. Law as legislation generally aims to achieve three integral purposes: 1. Supporting peace in society: law preserves the stability of society through security to and assurance of the individual and groups about their property, lives, and freedoms, rendering society to be more powerful, cohesive and respectful of individuals liberties and freedoms15. 2. Reconciliation between conflicting interests in society: law reconciles between the interests of individuals in society when individual interests conflict with the interests of the others, and causes disputes within society. The law consists of fixed rules that ensure solutions or responses would be based on justice and according to objective standards. Such rules reconcile conflicting interests between the public interest of society and the private interests of individuals, and do this by achieving a fair balance among these interests. Achievement of justice: the force of law and society’s respect for it depends on the extent of justice it achieves. As Aristotle commented: “(justice) makes us respect laws and equality”, and legal scholar Jenny said “the legal rules necessarily aim to achieve justice as law makes no sense without justice”16. Greek philosophers established justice on the basis of equality and proportion between the performance of one party and what it gets in return from the other. Due to the idea of justice, the rules of law are general and abstract and address equality as the core of justice. 3. Functions of Penal Codes Penal codes consider the reasons for crimes, and study it as a social phenomenon, paying attention to the conditions under which it happens. This provides very important information for law enforcement officials. The aim of penology is to study the punishment of crime and prison management, and so it is complementary to the penal code, which in turn aims to combat the phenomenon of crime. The importance of any penal code goes beyond the deterrence of criminals and the prevention of crime. In addition to the humanitarian role it fills, a penal code has a preventive, disciplinary and remedial role. In regard to the latter, it should attach particular attention to the personality of the offender and categorize penalties with a view to imposing the appropriate punishment that should also be able to help rehabilitate the offender. In the context of our research and study of the penal code per se, we found out that it aims to achieve three objectives: 1. Safeguarding values and social interests. Penal codes aims to protect values as well as social and individual interests. Society consists of a group of individuals who 14 14. Qasim. 1998. Entry into Law..Legal rule-CAIRO..Adar al-Jameya (University House). P 6-8. 15 al-Far, 1994. Entry to Legal Science Study (House of Science and Culture for Publishing and distribution), pp. 10-12. 16 Qasim, 1998. Entry into Law..Legal rule-CAIRO..Adar al-Jameya (University House). P 6-8. 17