Enforcement of Morality in Law

Enforcement of Morality in Law

  • Submitted By: nusry
  • Date Submitted: 10/06/2013 11:08 AM
  • Category: Miscellaneous
  • Words: 431
  • Page: 2
  • Views: 1

Enforcement of Morality is not a proper object of Criminal Law"
Morality is a pretty nebulous concept, who gets to decide what is and what isn’t moral? A lot of crimes against humanity were committed by people or groups who believed what they were doing was just and right.
Morality deals with that which is regarded as right or wrong. Morality stems from an individual's conscience and from the values of a given society, which might be based on religious laws, tradition or principals. Moral conduct would be that which is considered 'right' based on people's consciences and society's shared values. Morality is one way for a community to define appropriate activity.
Law, unlike morality, is made by someone. So it may, unlike morality, have aims, which are the aims of its makers. Not all laws have aims, however, because not all law-making is intentional. Some have thought that law must, by its nature, have certain distinctive moral aims when it has aims at all. If it lacks those aims it is not law. It must aim to be just, or aim to serve the common good. The problem we face is that some law makers have no moral aims and just make law a tool of money making and power gaining.
It is unquestionable that laws should protect the community, to do so the law must not only protect us from harm but also should protect us from challenged moral norm. For a society to function properly it should have moral norms cause if the law does not protect or respect their values, their devotion to the law is challenged. But if the law does respect the public’s moral values it would be easier to administer the law because it will be voluntary
In 1963 Professor H.L.A Hart published law, liberty and morality which started the famous Hart Devlin debate concerning the Enforcement of Morality by the criminal law.
Lord Devlin stated that “The criminal law is just not there for the protection of individuals but for society as a whole” and Professor Hart came out and said “unless...

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