Law and morality

Introduction
Society is a complex organism, a whole system of various relations that need to be streamlined and
regulated. For the purposes of regulation, a system of normative regulators is being formed in society:
customs, moral norms, religious norms and legal norms.
Among all social norms, moral and legal norms are the main regulators of human behavior and culture,
always acting in close interaction. Law and morality have the greatest value and social effect, are
fundamental historical values, indicators of the civilization of society, its social and cultural progress.
One of the most important philosophers of law in the twentieth century, Herbert Hart remarks: "If there is
law naturally then this is the right of people to be free, from freedom derive all rights - the right to freedom
- to be free means to have the ability to choose - this is where morality comes from. "
Concept of Law
The law is the system of norms established or recognized by the state for the purpose of regulating the
social relations according to the will of the state, whose observance is guaranteed by the coercive force of
the state. Because the types of law differ in their casuality, it can be seen that the term "law" is predicated
analogously and not univocally of the types of law : eternal, natural, divine and positive.
One of them, Divine law is concerned with the standards man must conform to in order to attain salvation.
These are revealed to mankind by inspiration or revelation, as for example the Ten Commandments
contained within the Bible.
Eternal Law is the Divine Wisdom of God which oversees the common good and governs everything.
Everything in nature reflects the Eternal Law in their own natures.
Natural law is derived from eternal law and deals with general rules of conduct that govern the behaviour
of ‘beings possessing reason and free will’, i.e. humans. It is implanted in us by God as part of our nature,
and so we have a natural inclination to behave in a way that fulfils our purpose in life. These include the
inclination to preserve life, procreate, and live within society.
Positive law declares and supplements natural law by more definite determinations and its chief function is
to implement natural law in different civilizations and cultures.
Concept of Morality
The word morality derives originally from the Latin word mos (plural: mores). The standard meaning of
this word is a custom, habit or usage that is determined by man’s will rather than by law. The Roman
statesman and orator Cicero once wrote that law and custom must both be obeyed, illustrating their parity.
Custom formed the bedrock of Roman society in Cicero’s day, with duties and obligations balanced by
rights and privileges.
Morality, according to doctrine, represents a set of concepts and rules about good or bad, right or wrong,
allowed or not allowed. It can be considered as a sum of social virtues: justice, altruism, gratitude, love,
charity generosity, sincerity, devotion, respect for others.
Moral precepts have always guided the conduct of people who thus relate their behavior to the moral
values of good or evil, from which derives the definition of this behavior as moral or immoral. Therefore
rational human nature is the norm of morality, and morality is the transformation of a known order of
values. To put it quit succinctly, morality is nothing more than conformity with the rule which regulates
human life: namely, the rule of reason. So the evolution of law has been influenced over time, to a large
extent, by morality.

The relationship between Law and Morality

Common features of law and morality
However, between law and morality there is a close connection, of mutual conditioning. Thus, the law
embodies within it moral principles, protects and guarantees fundamental moral values, and at the same
time its fundamental force is given by its moral obligation. For legal rules to be effective, they must
comply with moral standards that are accepted by their recipients.
Law and morality have common features, properties. Their main common features are manifested in the
fact that they are included in the content of the culture of society, are value forms of consciousness, have a
normative content and serve as regulators of people's behavior. Law and morality have common social,
economic, political conditions for the life of society, they serve the common goal of harmonizing the
interests of the individual and society, ensuring and raising human dignity, maintaining public order.
What is the unity of law and morality?
1. There are various social norms, which together form a system of normative regulation and, therefore,
have some common features, have a single normative base.
2. They have the same object of regulation - social relations (only in different volumes), they are addressed
to the same individuals, groups, strata, collectives; their requirements are largely the same.
3. As normative phenomena, they define the limits of appropriate and possible actions of subjects, serve as
a means of expressing and reconciling personal and public interests.
4. From a philosophical point of view, they represent categories of superstructures, primarily due to
economic factors, as well as political, cultural and other determinants, which makes them socially similar
in a given society or formation.
5. Speakers as fundamental general historical values, indicators of social and cultural progress of society,
its creative and disciplinary principles.
6. Finally, they have the same goals and objectives - streamlining and improving public life, introducing
organizational principles into it, protecting human rights, developing and enriching the individual, justice
and affirming the ideals of humanism.
It is important to bear in mind that morality, like law, is never eternal and unchanging anywhere. It arises
together with society, changes and develops with it. This is a historical phenomenon.To be convinced of
the truth of what has been said, it is enough to pose, for example, the following question: can the morality
that justifies slavery in the early stages of human development be shared by people at the middle, and even
more so at the modern stage of its development? Or: can medieval morality, which often took the "Holy
Inquisition" under its protection, can be considered moral today? Of course not. And the point is not
whether it was good or bad. The main reason is that the society (or part of it) that preached this morality is
in the past. It was replaced by new societies with economic and socio-political development.
On the basis of this and other examples, it can be concluded that the universal values laid down at different
stages of the development of society in law and morality coincide. In this case, the law consolidates and
protects morality. The latter, in turn, supports the law. Law is moral, and morality is consistent with law.
This is one of the manifestations of their common and special. Thus, both law and morality have the ability
to penetrate the most diverse areas of public life.
History of the relationship between Law and Morality
The issue of the relationship between morality and law has been the concern of legal thinking since
antiquity. If in ancient Greece there wasn’t yet a clear delimitation between the two concepts of social
norms, the Roman legal theory, being very preoccupied with the improvement of the legal system, took
important steps to conceive the independence of the law in relation to morality.
Aristotle (1996) believed that there must be a relationship of subordination between law and morality. So
he said that as soon as the supreme goal of promoting virtue disappears, “the law becomes a simple
convention, being merely a guarantee of individual rights, without any disruption to the morality and
personal justice of the cities”. Morality is a foundation for law in Cicero’s (1995) view also. Cicero is
considered to be the first and one of the few lawyers who appreciated that justice, being a social ethic,
presupposes people's love for others, an idea that was later taken over by Christianity as well. Of course,
the origin of law is in nature because good and evil, being principles of nature, are judged in accordance
with it. Mihnea Jida (2013) asserts that the philosopher Ch. Thomasius was the first who, from the
theoretical point of view, made a distinction between law and morality. In his essay, Fundamenta Juris
Naturalae et Gentium (1705), he considered that law is distinguished from moral content, because moral
obligations are imperfect because they do not provide for sacrifices, while legal ones are perfect with
sanctions. From the perspective of Immanuel Kant, which was distinct from ancient philosophy, moral
action prevails. This, inherent in itself, allows it to subordinate the moral right, within the distinction
between the two, the law to only external relations. So morality is a limit for the law, and it cannot act on
the moral sphere of being. There are also authors who have gone to the other extreme in the sense that they
exclude any connection between morality and law. Hans Kelsen (1962), for example, believes that the
science of law is pure theory of law and that, in his research he must abstain from moral or political
influences over the law.
Efect of relationship
Although there are specific areas of relationship between law and morality, it does not follow that courts
will consider moral elements in the application of the positive civil law. The-extent of the weight of moral
consideration in the application of the positive law will be contingent upon many factors: particular weight
is given to moral considerations in the expansion of legal rights and in the interpretation of constitutions
and statutes.A curious and rather candid illustration of the weight of moral consideration in the application
of the positive law is found in a story told by Justice Caton on the way in which the justices of the Illinois
Supreme Court arrived at their decision in Shackleford v. Hall.
Contradictions between law and morality
The close interaction of the norms of law and morality does not mean that this process is smooth, conflict-
free. Moral and legal requirements do not always and not in everything agree, and often directly oppose
each other.Law by its nature is more conservative, it inevitably lags behind the flow of life, moreover, it
itself contains a lot of collisions. Morality is more mobile, dynamic, more active and more elastic reacts to
the changes taking place. Hence, in any society there is always a different legal and moral state.Often there
are situations when the law permits something, but morality prohibits, and vice versa, the law prohibits,
and morality permits. Sometimes life collisions put the courts in a difficult position.On the other hand, as a
result of the landslide criminalization of society, the law cannot cope with its regulatory and protective
functions, and turns a blind eye to many dangerous antisocial phenomena and anomalies. Even the ancient
Romans said: laws are meaningless in an immoral country.
Conclusion
Thus, the principles of law originated in morality, this being the cornerstone of the law. The core of the
distinction between legal and moral norms, according to Del Vecchio (1993), is that “the law constitutes
objective ethics and the moral subjective ethics”.A true lawyer must always look beyond the letter of the
law and identify his spirit, because he highest level of knowledge of the science of law is reached by the
jurist when he realizes that the main landmark of law is morality. In fact, the main reason why man needs a
right is that, in his imperfection, he is immoral.
To sum up, I support ideea of  Julian Baggini that „Legality is not morality, and sticking to the law is
necessary for good citizenship, but it is not sufficient.” Regardless of this, I think that a strong and healthy
right will assign to society what it must be through moral connotations and will use the mechanism of
coercion, which it has, in order to promoting human virtue and ennobling man.
Bibliography
 Law and Morality by Arthur Scheller Jr,
https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3196&context=mulr
 The Relation Between Law and Morality by Emima Alistar (Hîrlav),
http://rais.education/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/53EH.pdf
 http://alevellaw.doomby.com/pages/law-and-morality/
 Dreptul și morala ca forme de reglementare a vieții sociale de Batîr Alexandra
 Conceptul de drept și moralitate . Noul avocat (1999)