Pleading Ignorance of the Law

     Ignorance of the law does not make one wicked.  Imagine traveling to another country or culture, where some of the regular customs in your own are outlawed.  Is it fair then to be punished for them?  Aristotle might argue that you should educate yourself on the law before traveling.  But sometimes that privilege is not acceptable.  Or it seems like such common sense to trust your morality that it isn't necessary.  Or people overestimate their moral intelligence, which is a bad excuse.  However we must remember that because law is relative to location, morality must be as well.  Thus wickedness cannot be determined by another country's judges or priests.

    I am aware this would go against the law in our own country (USA), where not knowing it is no excuse for criminal activity.  I disagreed when I first learned about this, and still do.  Though there are some things so universally wicked, like murder and theft, that at traveler would be foolish to think wasn't the law, there are misdemeanors they wouldn't intuitively know were illegal. For instance, imagine traveling to Singapore and getting arrested for selling gum.  Unless someone had informed you, you wouldn't have known it was illegal there.  You could have tried reading about Singaporean law before traveling, and you would have been wise to do so, but there is always a chance you wouldn't find a particular law, especially when it isn't so easily grouped like that one.