Law And Morality Template Paper 2 Topic 7 And Paper 3 Topic 2

Question 1

Legal rules definition and example

Answer 1

Legal rules are rules which must be followed by society. If legal rules are not followed then a legally enforceable consequence will follow. Legal rules are mainly made by Parliament who is elected by the population following a preordained procedure. Legal rules can be made quickly. An example of a legal rule is in the Covid 19 lockdown where people could be fined if they travelled over a certain radius.

Question 2

Moral rules definition and example

Answer 2

However moral rules are society’s norms that have developed over time.
Moral rules govern what society sees as acceptable behaviour. If a moral use is broken no legal consequence follows however the community may ‘shun you’. An example of a moral rule is cheating on your partner.

Question 3

Legal and moral rules comparison

Answer 3

There is overlap between legal rules and moral rules because legal rules often reflect moral rules. An example of this is that it is immoral to steal something that doesn’t belong to you and this is also illegal under the Theft Act 1968. Although there are some circumstances where it would possibly be deemed not immoral to take something that doesn’t belong to you. For example a Robin Hood situation where a hungry person poaching on a rich landowners land.
Another way legal and moral rules crossover can be seen in the Covid 19 rules. For example most people considered it immoral that Downing Street continued to host partied during the Covid-19 lockdown and legal consequences also followed for this.

Question 4

Theories on legal and moral rules

Answer 4

Natural law theorists would argue that law should reflect morality and that any law that doesn’t reflect morality is an illegal law. For example Orthodox Christians would argue the law legalising homosexuality is immoral and so should be illegal.
However positivists believe that law and morality should be kept separate. For example if Parliament decides that the sex industry should be legalised then the fact that selling sex for money is immoral is irrelevant.
This debate can be seen in reaction to the findings in the 1950s Wolfdenden report which commended the legislation of prostitution and homosexuality.
A natural Law theorist, Lord Devlin, strongly disagreed with these proposals however a positivist theorist, Professor Hart, agreed.