I'm not suggesting cynicism here or that the common person "shouldn't" matter or be protected.
There's a very cogent argument about the development of laws as a way for elites to pragmatically secure their prerogatives, historically, by North, Wallis, and Weingast. Their book is "Violence and Social Orders" and there's a good paper on it here: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12795
There's a very cogent argument about the development of laws as a way for elites to pragmatically secure their prerogatives, historically, by North, Wallis, and Weingast. Their book is "Violence and Social Orders" and there's a good paper on it here: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12795