Law and Morality

Muhammad Ahmad Waheed (063)

Muhammad Hassnat Tahir (090)
Qaiser Nazir (37)
Fahad Amanullah (72)
Introduction
LAW:-
It is possible to describe law as the body of official rules and
regulation, generally found in constitutions, legislation,
judicial opinion, and that is used to govern a society and
control the behavior of its members, so law is a formal
mechanism of social control.
Law is also defined as a set of rules and principle which
enforce particular type of behavior.
Law is an enactment made by the state. It is backed by
physical coercion. Its breach is punishable by the courts. It
represents the will of the state and realizes its purpose.
Laws reflect the political, social and economic relationships
in the society. It determines rights and duties of the citizens
towards one another and towards the state.

It is through law that the government fulfill its promises to

the people. It reflects the sociological need of society.

 Law regulates and controls the external human conduct. It

is not concerned with inner motives. A person may be
having an evil intention in his or her mind but law does not
care for it.
• Law is universal in a particu­lar society. All the individuals are
equally subjected to it. It does not change from man to man.
Morality:-
Morality is a rule which lays down a standard of behaviour with
the bulk of society accept and to which its members ought to
conform and which justifies censure in its breach.
Morality regulates and con­trols both the inner motives and the
external actions. It is concerned with the whole life of man.
Morality condemns a person if he or she has some evil
intentions but laws are not applicable unless these intentions
are manifested externally.
Morality is variable. It changes from man to man and from
age to age. Every man has his own moral principles.
Moral laws lack precision and definiteness as there is no
author­ity to make and enforce them.
Morality is neither framed nor enforced by any political
author­ity. It does not enjoy the support of the state. Breach
of moral prin­ciples is not accompanied by any physical
punishment.
The only check against the breach of moral­ity is social
condemnation or indi­vidual conscience. 'Moral actions are a
matter of choice of inner conscience of the individual, laws
are a matter of compulsion'.
Gilchrist, "The state is the supreme condition of the individual
moral life, for without the state no moral life is possible.
• Laws are generally based on the moral
principles of a particular society. Some points
of distinction may be brought out as follows:
• (a) Laws regulate external human conduct whereas
morality mainly regulates internal conduct.

(b) Laws are universal; morality is variable.

(c) Laws are definite and precise while morality is variable.

• (d) Laws are upheld by the coercive power of the
state; morality simply enjoys the support of
public opinion or individual conscience.

• (e) Laws are studied under Jurisprudence but

mostly morality is studied under Ethics.
Relation between law and Morality
• The popular conception of the connection between law
and morality is that in some way the law exists to
promote morality, to preserve those conditions which
make the moral life possible, and than to enable men to
lead sober and industrious lives.
•  For it is contradicted by the fact’s. positive laws do not
rest upon moral laws and common notions of justice
furnish no court of appeal from the decrees of the State.
The average man confounds law and morality, and
identifies the rules of law with the principles of abstract
justice.
Three main Theories
• There are three main theories which deal with law and
morality. Firstly the liberal view known as the Harm to
others; principle expounded by John Stuart Mill in
1859.fn3 Mill thinks that the only purpose for which
power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a
civilised society against his will is to prevent harm to
others. Mill believed that the law should not be used to
enforce moral principles on society but to protect harm
to its citizens. Preventing someone from harming himself
is excluded by this harm to others principle. Criminal
offences such as murder. He also said that the purpose of
the law is to preserve decency and protect people and
not to interfere in private lives.
• The second theory is known as the Moralistic view, harm
to society principle which was put forth by Lord Devlin,
His view is that a recognised morality is essential to the
very essence and being of society. He thought that
individual liberty and freedom should be curtailed in
order to protect the fabric of society. Devlin said that
society may use the law to preserve morality in the same
way that it uses the law to safeguard anything that is
essential to its existence. An example of a law illustrating
this theory is the defence of consent in non-fatal
offences.
• The final theory is the most modern and is the
Paternalistic view, harm to self and others view as put
forward by Professor Hart ,His theory is that the law
should only intervene in the private lives of citizens to
prevent harm to others and harm to oneself. He did
acknowledge that there was a difficulty in defining harm
but did acknowledge that it did not include moral harm
to oneself. An existing law illustrating this theory is the
law which prevent methods of prostitution. The
Paternalistic view focuses very much on the individual.
 Conclusion
Generally, legal rules are composite and are derived
from heterogeneous source. if we examine all the legal
perspective, we shall find that some of them have come
from personal laws and local custom, a good number of
them are based on foreign rules and principles (mainly
English), some are based on the logic or political
ideology and so on. Secondly, ‘public opinion’ which
greatly influences law is made up of a number of things
– political ideas, economic theory, ethical philosophy
etc.
Conclusion
• These directly and indirectly influence law.
Therefore, when so many elements work in
shaping the legal precepts, the matter cannot be
put in such a simple way as the ‘relation
between law and morals’, because a number of
factors join hands in influencing law, and morals
is only one of them. However, some observations
can be made about the relationship between law
and morals.