The Skinny Line between Morality & Law
If a person eats meat, somewhere where majority refrain from taking it, would that individual be prone to punishment? Let’s say one participates a protest for additional Democratic space, that has been proscribed through the Government, is the fact that person justified in his/her cause? Would be the police justified to kill within the commission of crime in order to safeguard innocent lives, with lots of viewing taking of some other existence regardless of situation as wrong?
The above mentioned questions test our very fundamental values & concepts as what’s considered Immoral by others is legal based on the Laws and regulations from the land, and vice- versa.
Thus developing a little difference between Morality & Law, sometimes so thin that’s indistinguishable in the other, even some consider them interdependent. However in different conditions, the road is obvious with every controlled by its very own values & concepts.
Based on Collins Dictionary, Morality is the fact that some behavior is appropriate & acceptable which another behavior is wrong. In broader terms is really a system of concepts & values concerning people’s behavior that is generally recognized by society or by particular group.
Then if a person eats meat somewhere where majority abstains from this because of their beliefs & concepts, he/she’ll be looked at immoral. Another example is that if one participates in pre-marital sex, inside a society where marriage before sex is really a taboo, then they are also immoral.
By committing such taboos shall we be prone to be punished, can there be any basis to punish individuals who’ve gone from the recognized norms set through the society. To become fair, they are concepts which have led society before our Grandma and grandpa were born and offered like a yard stick for generations.
Based on Wikipedia, Law is really a system of rules which are produced and enforced through social or governmental institutions to manage behavior or perhaps in broader term a method that regulates and helps to ensure that individuals or community follow the will from the condition.
Hence, if a person participates an illegal protest, regardless of how right the reason why are or align using their innate beliefs & concepts e.g. agitating for additional Democratic space inside a country. They’ll face the entire pressure from the law as enshrined within the metabolic rate and enforced by relevant institutions.
But when one takes meat inside a society where it is a taboo, the individual is going to be wrong based on the society but legally to what the law states or participates in pre-marital sex, the problem it’s still exactly the same.
In some instances, what’s morally wrong within the society may also be illegal, for instance in Islamic societies participating in pre or extra- marital matters isn’t just a crime but additionally illegal with punishment meted using the Quran. Such societies, it’s difficult to differentiate between Law & Morality as our Moral Compass forms the foundation in creating Laws and regulations that govern us and enforced by Institutions.
Some go further stating nearly all laws and regulations passed truly are led by our Moral value that is true, for instance what’s been considered generally wrong through the society e.g. public nudity could be enacted & passed into law prohibiting such behavior with Effects if violated.
In this scenario, there is no line to differentiate between Law & Morality because they are interdependent and something functions as a basis within the formation from the other. Illustrations are countries with Condition Religion e.g. Islamic countries like Iran, Pakistan where Sharia law in line with the Quran forms the building blocks of laws and regulations enacted through the Government.
However in modern Western Democratic countries, there is a obvious line between Law & Morality and therefore are separate from one another. For instance Abortion is really a taboo in lots of societies and laws and regulations enacted outlawing it. In the western world, the Rationality of Law takes priority and also the mother has got the Right with the idea to keep or terminate her pregnancy. Hence emphasis is around the Legal rights of the Individual compared to collective conscience from the Society.
Just as they say another man meat is yet another man’s poison, in Law & Morality what’s considered morally wrong in a single society is legally in another and the other way around. The skinny lines are what keeps them from clashing with one another in matters of Values & Concepts and making certain a in some way balanced society led through the Rule of Law.