LAW AND MORAL RULES

     Normally when we speak, we don’t differentiate between ethics and morals. However, we have studied that ethics is a branch of philosophy that studies the different moral codes, their origin, fundaments and it does compare them. Besides, when we talk about ethics it is concerning human behaviors. No other animal can ask themselves what’s right or wrong or what is desirable to do and that is because the most of their behaviors are instinctive. This is not the case for us. We are responsible of our actions because we can choose them. In other words, just because we are supposed to be free and aware of what we do, we are responsible of our actions. This happens also in law. Imagine a little two year old child who is playing with his brother and he gives him some house cleaning spray to drink. As a result of it, he dies; but is the young brother responsible for the murder?

     The answer is no. Because he isn’t aware of what he is doing.

     Now imagine this situation: a drunk man comes home, prepares a baby bottle for his child and, as he is completely drunk and out of his mind, when he washes the baby bottle he leaves a lot of detergent in it. As a result, the child dies. Is this man responsible?

     Whatever you answer, the two cases seem different. In the first one, the child wasn’t aware of what he was doing but neither was it his duty to know it and, most of all, he couldn’t.  Could we say the same about the second scenario?

    We are a kind of animal with very little instinct, we are designed to make choices, so we need a code to guide us. That’s why it is impossible not to be moral.  These moral laws don’t refer to how something is but to what it ought to be. However, they are not the only laws which tell us what we should do. Legal laws do as well. In fact, the same action can be judged differently by legal laws and morality and they can either agree or disagree. So we have to differentiate between when we are acting for legal reasons and when we do it to fit our moral principles.

     In short, we can say that law has these characteristics:

1.         The sense of obligation comes from external factors.

2.         Law applies to everyone in the community.

3.        That’s why they are public and everybody has the right to know them

4.        The law uses penalties to force people to follow the rules and these penalties are already established and known to the public.

On the contrary moral laws have these characteristics:

1.    The sense of obligation comes from the inner self

2.    The law applies only to the person who believes in it.

3.    They are private, namely, they don’t have to be announced.

4.    The penalties are not established because they depend on the moral of the person who judges them.

Finally we can say that law is in the area of heteronomy and moral is in the area of autonomy. Most of the time, legal and moral laws agree, but what does it happen if they don’t? What does it happen if the law forces me to do something I consider unfair or maybe it takes some fundamental rights away from me? In these cases we find ourselves in a dilemma. On the one hand, I want to do what my conscience tells me, but on the other hand, if I do, I would have to face the legal consequences. So, we have to take a decision, which it isn’t always easy.

EXERCISE:

Investigate to find out a legal law that you disagree with.

What would you do if you had to choose between your moral code and this law? Explain the reasons of your election