Law and Morals

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Distinguish between law and morals. Evaluate whether the law upholds the moral values of society.

Sir John Salmond referred to the law as being ‘the body of principles recognised and applied by the state in the administration of justice’. Morals, on the other hand, refer to what a person, or community, believes to be right or wrong. This can be influenced by the law, but more often morality is affected by different factors for different people, and includes agents such as religion, the media, upbringing and peers.

There are further differences between law and morals. Morality develops overtime while law can be introduced instantly. This can be seen through views on homosexuality, where society now has a greater acceptance of such couples than perhaps even 20 years ago. Nowadays, the debate stands as to whether or not legislation should be introduced which allows gay couples to parent children. It is arguable though, that it is the change in moral values that prompt changes in the law. Also, as morals are voluntary codes of conduct, they may be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce in today’s pluralist society.

Morals affecting the law are ageless. In ‘The Changing Law’, Lord Denning noted that the Christian faith influenced the evolution of common law. This was most famously seen through Lord Atkin’s ‘neighbour test’, established in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson 1932. The moral (Christian) concept reflected society’s views on the duty of care manufacturers owed consumers, which may not have been the case some years before that. Morals are still effective today, as seen in R v R 1991. This reflected society’s revulsion to rape within marriage. It was held that a husband could be convicted of rape where his wife had not given consent to sexual intercourse as there was no longer a rule stating that a wife consents to sexual intercourse with her husband simply because they are married. Although this would have been considered a morally right law to impose, it has been criticised for being slow to develop. This once again shows that laws can uphold morals, but it is more the morals that given way to new laws.

Salmond has illustrated the relationship between law and morals as intersecting circles. This also gives way to parts of the two circles being untouched by the other; they only overlap on point of agreement. For example, several areas of criminal law such as murder, theft and rape are both legally and morally wrong. This has led Michael Allen to argue that what criminal law considers as wrong is built on ‘the fundamental values upon which a society is founded’.  However, ‘fundamental values’ such as contraception and adultery have no basis in law. This is likely to be because secular considerations have become influential on the law. Moreover, this can explain why in the case of Gillick 1986, a mother was unable to prevent her teenage daughter from receiving private medical advice and treatment concerning sexual matters and contraception, as she thought this was encouraging under age sex which she believed to be morally wrong due to her religious beliefs. It was held that if a teenage girl was of sufficient intelligence then advice and contraception could be given. This shows that the law is not upholding the morals expressed by the mother in this case, but the point can be made that the law concerning sexual matters was introduced as a means to create sexual awareness, something that many may consider to be morally right.

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There are also legal issues, such as parking laws and building without permission, that do not give society as a whole moral concern, and this is also true of making and selling/buying pirate DVDs. These issues are the part of the ‘circle of law’ that is not strictly controlled by morality. However, issues such as abortion, which was legalised in the Abortion Act 1967, play an integral part in legal and moral issues. While it can be argued that abortion is morally wrong, the legality of it could be viewed as merely reflecting attitudes at the time - that a ...

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