Is morality no place in law?

[cho_pilo]

Thoughts?

 

[davidv]

Civil and criminal laws are secular morality.

 

[DexUK]

I’m not sure I understand your question - it could be read two ways:

1. Is there no morality in law?

or

1. Does morality have no place in law?

Which one do you mean?

For the record, I’d say that there are plenty of laws that contain no intrinsic moral dimension - i.e. merely temporal regulations, along the lines of arbitrary speed limits, laws about what colour you’re allowed to paint your house in certain residential zones, etc.

There are also plenty of laws that directly contradict that which is intrinsically moral - i.e. preserving human life. I am, of course, referring to laws about abortion and/or euthanasia.

As for situation 2, well, where a law has a direct moral dimension to it, then morals clearly do have a place in law. At least in Anglo-Saxon legal history, many older (one might say more sensible) laws are derived from the Judeo-Christian moral code, others from the Natural Law (and thus, Natural Morality), but clearly not all - again referring to laws which are contra to moral behaviour and others which are regulatory.

 

[charliedrake]

Morals are vital. We once had slavery which was legal yet immoral, today DEMS want income confiscated with excess taxes which with new laws would be legal yet immoral.

 

[Bezant]

Thoughts?

I think you mean, “Has morality no place in law?”

With concerns to civil law, it seems to me that if the law is a teacher, it does not teach people how to be moral, but about discouraging people to break it, and encouraging people to follow it. Inevitably morality plays into subjective practical application of the law, and even theoretically morality ties into abstract notions of justice, ethics, humanity, and fairness. Law and morality sometimes seem to me like reluctant bedfellows.