How Is Law Affected By Morality And Justice?

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Rajveer Khera - Law

How Is Law Affected By Morality And Justice?

Over the years, the legal personnel of the English Legal System have tried to separate law from morality and justice. This has proven to be quite a hard task considering the fact that even the House of Lords judges allow their morals to influence their decisions on certain cases.

I think it is difficult to separate morality from law because most of the laws in Britain are an example of enacted morality, such as the law on manslaughter and murder, which echoes the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”

Separating justice from law is just as hard. The dictionary definition of justice is ‘the normative idea of the proper outcome to a case.’ People seem to misinterpret this and understand it as the actual outcome of the case and so having been through the process of law and not getting the outcome they expected they say that justice was not done.

Moral principles can prove to be justificatory, that is they provide reasons for actions rather than excuses; they are concerned with the rights of those other than the originator of the principle. A moral justification will provide a valid reason why something should or should not happen.

A famous debate concerning morals was between a Professor Hart and Lord Devlin. Professor Hart argued that morality was something totally different to law. He said law was the logical correct decision and morals were private judgements. Lord Devlin said law and morals were one of the same.

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The statement, “You can’t legislate morality,” is, in my opinion, a half truth. Almost every law on the statute books of every civil government is based on a moral, for example, slander or perjury laws enact the moral requirement “thou shalt not bear false witness.” Traffic laws are moral laws also; their purpose is to protect life and property. Again they reflect the Ten Commandments. This is what many people will argue when told that morality is not the same as law.

Law is concerned with right and wrong, it restrains evil and protects good, isn’t this what most ...

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