Utopia - Thomas More

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Utopia Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ challenged Capital Punishment and Marriage convention in 16th Century England to innovate societies values into a Utopian civilisation. More has realigned societies values in law and marriage in order to shift beliefs and virtues according to his vision of Utopia. The implementation of these values such as fairness, equality and spirituality will see the breaking down of socio-economic divisions and ultimately a more free flowing society that accounts for everyone, in Utopia. These shifting values reflect contextual concerns of a just legal system and loyal marriage conventions. Thomas More poised a strong opposition to the legal system in 16th Century England that was centred on capital punishment. More believed in laws of morality and fairness in the legal system. He expressed this opinion by promoting that the abundance of specific laws and regulations in the English legal system be replaced by “very few laws, because, with their social system, very few laws are required… its quite unjust for anyone to be bound by a legal code… too difficult for him to understand”. More also opposed the adversarial system of trail and legal representation in the court. His ethics suggested that “they have no barristers to be over ingenious… and think it better for each man to plead his own cause” in an inquisitorial system that is free from the manipulative nature of lawyers. Thomas More’s values reflect the contextual concern and demand for equality and fairness in the legal system. He proposes that Utopia has a law that “is not too long for an ordinary person to read right through or too difficult for him to understand”. His Utopia also removes the bias and persuasion of adversarial trial and replaces it with an impartial system where “the point at issue is less likely to be obscured, and its easier to get at the truth”. Utopia
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