LJU4801 LEGAL PHILOSOPHY | ASSIGNMENT 1 2026 SEMESTER 1 |
COMPLETE MEMO | LAW & MORALITY, HART, DWORKIN, UBUNTU |
A+ VERIFIED | UNISA LLB
MODULE LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy
ASSIGNMENT Assignment 1 – 2026 Semester 1 (Sample
Memo)
QUALIFICATION LLB / LLM (NQF Level 8/9) – UNISA
MARKS 100 Marks (Verified A+ Sample)
SAMPLE MEMORANDUM OF ANSWERS
LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy | Semester 1, 2026
QUESTION 1 [25 MARKS]
Critically discuss the relationship between law and morality with reference to
at least TWO schools of jurisprudential thought. In your answer, illustrate the
tensions and convergences between these schools.
1.1 Introduction
The relationship between law and morality is one of the most enduring and
contested debates in legal philosophy. At its core, the question asks whether law
and morality are necessarily connected, contingently related, or entirely separate
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
,normative systems. This tension finds expression across the principal schools of
jurisprudence, most notably within Natural Law theory and Legal Positivism.
The inquiry is not merely academic: it determines how judges interpret statutes,
how legislators justify reform, and how citizens assess the legitimacy of legal
obligation. As H.L.A. Hart observed in The Concept of Law (1961), the
question 'what is law?' is entangled with — though ultimately separable from —
the question 'what ought the law to be?'
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
, LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy 2026 Semester 1 | Assignment 1
1.2 Natural Law Theory: Law and Morality as Inseparable
Natural law theorists maintain that there is a necessary connection between law
and morality. For St Thomas Aquinas, human law derives its validity from its
conformity with natural law, which in turn reflects divine reason. An unjust law,
in Aquinas's formulation, is 'a perversion of law' rather than law at all —
summarised in the maxim: lex iniusta non est lex (an unjust law is no law).
This classical position was carried into modern jurisprudence by Lon L. Fuller
in The Morality of Law (1964). Fuller posited an 'inner morality of law' — eight
procedural principles (generality, promulgation, prospectivity, clarity, non-
contradiction, possibility of compliance, constancy, and congruence) that any
system purporting to be a legal system must satisfy. Law, on this view, has an
inherent purposive orientation toward justice.
Contemporary natural law thinking, represented by John Finnis in Natural Law
and Natural Rights (1980), identifies a set of basic human goods (life,
knowledge, friendship, practical reasonableness, among others) that ground the
moral authority of law. For Finnis, the central case of law is a system of rules
that promotes the common good in conformity with these basic goods.
The strength of natural law theory lies in its capacity to condemn atrocities
legislated into law
— such as apartheid legislation or Nazi statutes — as not truly law. Its
vulnerability is the charge that it conflates descriptive and normative
jurisprudence, making it difficult to distinguish between what law is and what it
ought to be.
1.3 Legal Positivism: The Separation Thesis
Legal positivism, most rigorously articulated by Jeremy Bentham and John
Austin, insists on the strict separation between law as it is (lex lata) and law as it
ought to be (lex ferenda). For Austin, law is the command of the sovereign
backed by the threat of a sanction. Moral deficiency does not strip a norm of its
legal status — the existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit another.
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
COMPLETE MEMO | LAW & MORALITY, HART, DWORKIN, UBUNTU |
A+ VERIFIED | UNISA LLB
MODULE LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy
ASSIGNMENT Assignment 1 – 2026 Semester 1 (Sample
Memo)
QUALIFICATION LLB / LLM (NQF Level 8/9) – UNISA
MARKS 100 Marks (Verified A+ Sample)
SAMPLE MEMORANDUM OF ANSWERS
LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy | Semester 1, 2026
QUESTION 1 [25 MARKS]
Critically discuss the relationship between law and morality with reference to
at least TWO schools of jurisprudential thought. In your answer, illustrate the
tensions and convergences between these schools.
1.1 Introduction
The relationship between law and morality is one of the most enduring and
contested debates in legal philosophy. At its core, the question asks whether law
and morality are necessarily connected, contingently related, or entirely separate
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
,normative systems. This tension finds expression across the principal schools of
jurisprudence, most notably within Natural Law theory and Legal Positivism.
The inquiry is not merely academic: it determines how judges interpret statutes,
how legislators justify reform, and how citizens assess the legitimacy of legal
obligation. As H.L.A. Hart observed in The Concept of Law (1961), the
question 'what is law?' is entangled with — though ultimately separable from —
the question 'what ought the law to be?'
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
, LJU4801 – Legal Philosophy 2026 Semester 1 | Assignment 1
1.2 Natural Law Theory: Law and Morality as Inseparable
Natural law theorists maintain that there is a necessary connection between law
and morality. For St Thomas Aquinas, human law derives its validity from its
conformity with natural law, which in turn reflects divine reason. An unjust law,
in Aquinas's formulation, is 'a perversion of law' rather than law at all —
summarised in the maxim: lex iniusta non est lex (an unjust law is no law).
This classical position was carried into modern jurisprudence by Lon L. Fuller
in The Morality of Law (1964). Fuller posited an 'inner morality of law' — eight
procedural principles (generality, promulgation, prospectivity, clarity, non-
contradiction, possibility of compliance, constancy, and congruence) that any
system purporting to be a legal system must satisfy. Law, on this view, has an
inherent purposive orientation toward justice.
Contemporary natural law thinking, represented by John Finnis in Natural Law
and Natural Rights (1980), identifies a set of basic human goods (life,
knowledge, friendship, practical reasonableness, among others) that ground the
moral authority of law. For Finnis, the central case of law is a system of rules
that promotes the common good in conformity with these basic goods.
The strength of natural law theory lies in its capacity to condemn atrocities
legislated into law
— such as apartheid legislation or Nazi statutes — as not truly law. Its
vulnerability is the charge that it conflates descriptive and normative
jurisprudence, making it difficult to distinguish between what law is and what it
ought to be.
1.3 Legal Positivism: The Separation Thesis
Legal positivism, most rigorously articulated by Jeremy Bentham and John
Austin, insists on the strict separation between law as it is (lex lata) and law as it
ought to be (lex ferenda). For Austin, law is the command of the sovereign
backed by the threat of a sanction. Moral deficiency does not strip a norm of its
legal status — the existence of law is one thing; its merit or demerit another.
University of South Africa (UNISA) Page
