Law v. Justice and the Social construction of law

I was driving home from a hearing today--I had unsuccessfully contested a ticket for running a stop sign on my bicycle--and I was suddenly fascinated by law. Law, like politics, is a realm of study that never appealed to me; I associated law with small print, dry texts, and hokey paralegal commercials (I associated politics with negative campaign ads and empty promises).

I ran the stop sign; I broke the law; it's not contestable. However, the stop sign has been ignored by thousands of bikers in the three years I've lived in the area, and even though there's an almost constant presence of police there, I've never seen any biker pulled over--why was I singled out? Is it fair, is it just, to suddenly decide to prosecute an individual without warning?

When the officers pulled me over (using lights and sirens--a little excessive in the wake of the RNC image problems), one of the officers who got out of the car told me that she was giving me a citation because the laws were in place to keep me safe. That struck a chord. Law is a social construction, a group effort to help keep the society safe. If that's the case, who does the society encompass? Is the society made up of the elite, of the majority, of the minority? While societies are social constructions, laws are applied geographically. If there are people who live within a geographic area but are not a part of the dominant society of that area, it may not even be possible for them to receive justice.

Minnesota law states that bikers have the same rights and rules as drivers of motor vehicles. Bikers certainly don't have the same rights as the drivers; bikers hardly have the right to exist and the infrastructure of the city rarely keeps bikers safe, bikers are responsible for their own safety. There's an imbalance. So, here's another musing. What is the balance between rights and regulations?

So, if anyone has made it this far, I have two requests. The first is to post your own ideas on law v. justice and the social construction of law. And second, do you have any book suggestions (preferably those with medium-sized print and a little bit of pop culture to soften the edges for us newbies).