Some of the most difficult problems of modern law relate to how it asks these two questions about identity. Identity as a Legal Concept Modern law generally rests on the view that human beings should have just one legal identity. This idea, of course, came out of the enlightenment and was the way by which the assumptions of feudalism were challenged and overcome. In most cases, law gives us a legal identity that we have in common with everyone else. So, for example, everyone has the same rights under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
People are simply people.
Today, however, more and more Canadians see themselves not just as individuals, but as members of groups. Their identity is, in some sense, made up of their group attachments. The law now directly recognizes this. Often it invites or requires us to take on a particular identity that we don't share with everyone. Some of our identities are very powerful in shaping who we are.