Do you ever wonder the relationship between Law and Morality? Are you the person that believes that All laws are moral? Therefore, Law and Morality exist together? Or are you someone that believes that Laws are based on the majority of the societies wishes? Which means that if the society is to decides to create immoral laws, then there shall be immoral laws? And Therefore, Law and Morality doesn’t exist together where it is subject to the morality of the society?
My take is that Law and Morality doesn’t always coexist, it only coexists when the society itself is moral. If the Society itself decides to make immoral law then the law is immoral. On top of that, morality itself is very subject where what I think is moral is different from what another think is moral. Therefore, in order to survive as a large community or Society, the Law can only afford the bare minimum of the morality which is decided by the society. To a certain extent, Law and Morality do coexist.
Another question is that have you ever wondered why do you even follow the law? Do you follow the law just because you are afraid of the sanction/punishment that comes when you fail to follow the law? i.e. you are afraid of texting and driving because you are afraid of the punishment that comes with it? Or are you the person who follows the law just because you think that it is right to follow it? i.e. you do not drive and text because you think that drive and text is a dangerous to drive and text and It may increase the risk of accident. Therefore, you don’t text and drive? Let us look into some theories by jurist…
Legal Positivist
Legal Positivist are people who believes that Law and Morality do not coexist. The determination of what the law ought to be is based on the society itself.
Command Theory
A theory by John Austin where he believes that the reason why people followed the law is that the people is afraid of the sanction that might inflict towards them and the fear itself creates a habitual obedience for the people to follow the law.
The Concept of Law
HLA Hart states that the reason why people follow law is because they possess this critical reflective attitude where they observe what the people in the society and they act according and not because they are afraid of the sanction which comes with it as a result of disobeying the law.
My take is that people follow the law is because they are afraid of the sanction that is comes from disobeying the law. The creation of law itself is due to the existence of immorality a clear example is a road without traffic light, the reason of the adding the traffic light is because people fails to give way to one another and by adding traffic lights, people have no choice but wait and give way until the traffic light turns green and if they failed to stop when the traffic lights turns red they might be subjected to fine and/or might caught into an accident. Fearing of it creates a habitual obedience for them to follow the law.
Therefore, my view is that where moral fails, law begins.
