Law and Morality

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Law describes “the body of official rules and regulations, generally found in constitutions, legislation, judicial opinions, and the like, that is used to govern a society and to control the behaviour of its members. [In other words,] law is a formal mechanism of social control.” Morality, on the other hand, labels the beliefs and values shared by a society, or a selection of society. Morality fabricates the “principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.” Although the dictionary definitions of the two, do not illustrate whether or not there is a link between law and morality, through the exploration of recognized jurisprudential theories and with the aid of cases as examples, this paper will take into consideration “whether these two notions are interdependent or have to be separated from each other.” Repeatedly, it has been stated that both legal and moral rules are normative. The reason behind this is they both outline what one is ought to or should do from a moral or ethical standpoint. However, drawing such a similarity is not completely correct because legal rules do not always derive from a moral, ethical standpoint. In fact, legal rules are better described as positive rules because they are rules that impose a legal obligation to do or refrain from doing something. If one refuses to abide by legal rules, an official sanction may be imposed. On the other hand, obedience of morality is completely voluntary; however, although moral rules are not supported by legal sanctions, social pressures reinforce them. “Morality is 'personal' to the individual; [while] law must be 'universal' to society.” While legal rules are applied by the courts, in regards to the society, moral rules are applied by society in regards to individuals. Moral rules depend on a person’s guilt to be enforced; however, moral rules too are a
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