Every society must have rules of various sorts—not just laws, but management procedures, and above all customs and manners. But no set of rules, however complex, can handle all the situations that can come up in human society. So rules must always have exceptions.
The effectiveness of a society is determined by how it handles exceptions. If it is too hard to make exceptions, the society becomes rigid, stifling, and ultimately ossified. If, on the other hand, rules are allowed to break down, society dissolves.
The good society grants exceptions generously—but insists that they be acknowledged to be exceptions.