Tuesday, 12 November 2019
Law, Morality, and Cannibalism
Law in Action
Morality:
- Code of beliefs, principles and values
- Religious or non-religious in origin
- Re ects the broader, underlying values of a society at a given point in time
- (universal morality?)
Law:
- Series of binding rules, supported by o cial sanctions
- Requires a high degree of certainty to be e ective and enforceable
- Consciously changed though the AofP of decisions of the court
- Overlap between Law and Morality: 2/10 commandments are against the law - all morally
wrong.
Legal Theory: Natural Law
- Law is derived from God/Nature
- Certain universal values that Man should not deviate from
- Problem: what is man legislates contrary to Natural Law? - theorists = that’s why there’s a
problem with law and society - why society breaks down.
Legal Theory: Legal Positivism
- Law in Man-made
- Re ects the values important to a given society at a given point in time
- Problem: what if we pass laws which are morally abhorrent? (e.g. Nuremburg Race Laws,
Apartheid.)
- Not God given set of laws but man made - there is still fundamental values
Interaction of Law and Morality in English and Welsh Law:
- Law previously sanctioned behaviour society generally saw as ‘immoral’ (e.g. Murder, abortion,
homosexuality)
- All decriminalised to various degrees during the 1960’s
- Suicide Act (1961), Abortion Act (1967), Sexual O ences Act (1967)
1
fl
ffi ff ff
Law, Morality, and Cannibalism
Law in Action
Morality:
- Code of beliefs, principles and values
- Religious or non-religious in origin
- Re ects the broader, underlying values of a society at a given point in time
- (universal morality?)
Law:
- Series of binding rules, supported by o cial sanctions
- Requires a high degree of certainty to be e ective and enforceable
- Consciously changed though the AofP of decisions of the court
- Overlap between Law and Morality: 2/10 commandments are against the law - all morally
wrong.
Legal Theory: Natural Law
- Law is derived from God/Nature
- Certain universal values that Man should not deviate from
- Problem: what is man legislates contrary to Natural Law? - theorists = that’s why there’s a
problem with law and society - why society breaks down.
Legal Theory: Legal Positivism
- Law in Man-made
- Re ects the values important to a given society at a given point in time
- Problem: what if we pass laws which are morally abhorrent? (e.g. Nuremburg Race Laws,
Apartheid.)
- Not God given set of laws but man made - there is still fundamental values
Interaction of Law and Morality in English and Welsh Law:
- Law previously sanctioned behaviour society generally saw as ‘immoral’ (e.g. Murder, abortion,
homosexuality)
- All decriminalised to various degrees during the 1960’s
- Suicide Act (1961), Abortion Act (1967), Sexual O ences Act (1967)
1
fl
ffi ff ff
