Morality and Law: Inseparable Entities

The paper entitled “About Morality and Nature of Law” by Joseph Raz
tries to prove that morality and law cannot be separated. It opposes the view of
political anarchism that some features of the law render to be inconsistent
with morality, hence, concluding that the law is essentially immoral. In the
point of view of Robert Paul Wolf, law is inconsistent with people’s moral
autonomy and it requires obedience regardless of one’s judgment. Thomists
also admit that laws can be put to use for evil by the government official.
The author insists that there is a necessary connection between law and
morality. The three examples he cites to prove the connection between
morality and law are the following: given human nature and the conditions of
human, necessarily no legal system can be stable unless the it provides some
protection for human life and property to some of the people to whom it
applies; given that only living animals can have sex, necessarily rape cannot
be committed by the law nor by the legal institutions; and given value
pluralism, necessarily no state or legal system can manifest to their highest
degree all the virtues or all the vices there are.
Regarding the obligation to obey, the writer believes that it is not because
of duty why people are obliged to obey the law but it is because of the support
of the people for a just institution, a just government and a just legal system.
Also, the writer enumerates claims that show the systematic properties of
the law: a) Law, by its nature, is an institution which can be used realize
valuable ends; b) Law, by its nature, is an institution with a moral task to
perform; and c) Law, by its nature, is a morally valuable institution.
As future lawyers, judges and lawmakers, it is important for every law
student to decide the kind of theory he/she will apply to analyze and judge
laws. This paper also explains the importance of morality with regards to law.
Morality gives life the Constitution and it brings life to the people.