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RE: Above the law? Does the law even apply? What's the evidence?
So, you mean people are born as slaves, and with the obligation to obey their ruler's arbitrary demands. And that is the natural law? Please tell me with what kind of magic, some of the born slaves become masters and slave owners, being born as defenseless and dependent as everyone else?
![5 questions] (http://imgur.com/a/S918O)
I wouldn't say slaves is the right word for it. But we have the moral obligation to pass onto the future society what society has done to benefit us. Any other action is immoral selfishness. And true, there is unfairness in how the power is arranged. We ought to work together to fix that. But you would see, if you actually lived in a land without law, there is even more unfairness without the law.
Let me answer those questions:
Yes. If someone commits harm upon a group, the individuals do not have the moral right to vigilante retribution. But the group itself has the moral right to protect every member.
Not so much the "right" to do things they wouldn't do, but the obligation. They act as a delegate of the group, and they are obligated to work in the best interests and direction of the group instead of their own.
I wouldn't say an act is transformed. Morality is not absolute. The "same" act in different circumstances has different moralities. Obeying the consensus of society is a circumstance where your actions are usually (but not always) moral. For instance, stealing to feed your family is different from stealing to obtain as much wealth as possible. Even slight differences make a difference: if you stole luxury foods to feed your family when it was possible to steal mundane foods, that is different from stealing the cheapest items you need.
Yes, if they do anything immoral while a delegate of society, they are just as culpable as if they did it as an individual.
If a delegate is ordered to to something he finds morally wrong, he is obligated to step down from his position. He is also morally obligated to try to change society so that his successor does not commit the same wrongs.