Brian, who told you that you can't use 'the' with plurals? This is nonsense - of course we use the with plurals! The book/the books. The man/ the men. I think that you are over-applying a rule when you say that you can't use an article with plurals. This rule ONLY applies to indefinite nouns. Indefinite singular: a book Indefinite plural: books Definite singular: the book Definite plural: the books

In your sentence, all the nouns are used in a general sense and do not refer to specific examples e.g. "laws are meant to be obeyed" Compare with this example: "the first law which should be obeyed is not to kill anyone" Here, we are referring a specific law which is described. So we need "the" We say "the BBC" because it is a specific "Corporation" - the "British Broadcasting" Corporation. In the same way, we refer to "the" United Kingdom (but we do not say "the" England or "the" Scotland", for example). There are lots of little rules about when to use "the" and when not to which you can find in the grammar books.