Question 9 - Morality

Question 1

1. What law and morality refers to

Answer 1

Law and Morality refers to the interaction between the defined, rigid laws and the abstract and often times fluid concept of morality throughut our society

Question 2

2. `How they are enforced

Answer 2

Legal rules are often enforced formally, such as through police and court systems whereas moral rules are enforced informally such as social exclusion and condemnation

Question 3

3. What are morals

Answer 3

Morals are subjective personal codes of values that are based on levels of fault that determine what is right and wrong or which has more severe or harmful impacts on the victim or claimants

Question 4

4. Overlap between them

Answer 4

However, laws and morals can overlap and influence each other as what is illegal is immoral and vice versa

Question 5

5. 2 approaches to link between law and morality

Answer 5

There are 2 different approaches in regard to the link between law and morality. Positivism - maintains that they should be kept separate and Natural law theory - says law should enforce moral values

Question 6

6. Example of morality in civil law

Answer 6

An example of where morality is evident in civil law is allowing plaintiffs to claim for negligence where they have suffered physical damage or personal injury due to tortious acts of their neighbours

Question 7

7. Issue with morality

Answer 7

An issue is that morality is ever changing, which can lead to conflict as the law can be too rigid to adapt to the moral changes quick enough.

Question 8

8. Example in criminal law

Answer 8

An example of this can been seen in criminal law with R v R where marital rape was criminalised, showing that the law was slow to change as many in society would have believed it to be immoral prior to the law making it illegal.

Question 9

9. Overall interconnection

Answer 9

Overall the interconnection of law and morality is positive as it allows the law to keep up with what most people view as ‘morally right’

Question 10

10. Overall however

Answer 10

However, due to ever changing and subjective nature of morality this may be hard to discern and could leave the law to be seen as immoral due to it being outdated or decided by law makers with their own view on morality