Morality, Ethics, and Law: Principles and Challenges
Morality, Ethics, and Law
Another form of regulatory systems addresses imposed groups using coercion, sometimes by force, as legal standards. Those who appeal to moral imperatives, internal, emotional, or rational, follow moral and ethical standards. The separation between systems’ rules is not absolute. Customs have the force of law in many societies, and legal codes are based on morality.
Why Do Good?
Obedience to the law because it is mandated is called “heteronomy.” Obedience to the law from within is “autonomy.” Acting independently is the human way, respecting freedom and rationality.
Public and Private Morality/Ethics
To resolve contradictions between objective standards and conscience, distinguish between public ethics and private morality. Private aims for personal perfection or happiness. Public aims for justice in human relations. Private morality relies on personal beliefs; public ethics relies on evidence accepted by impartial reason. Private morality is personal; public ethics is enforceable by law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a public theory partly codified into law, defending individual rights, including freedom of conscience and private moral practices, within human rights boundaries.
Birthright
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen fought against the king’s absolute power, which left subjects defenseless. It affirmed pre-existing rights within the monarch’s legislative power, distinguishing “rights of man” (inherent to humans) from “civil rights” (granted by society). These natural rights defend individuals against the monarch’s power. The Virginia Declaration states all men are equally free and have inherent rights. The French declaration exhibits natural, inalienable, and sacred rights.
Different Meanings
- Law: Objective rules in force in a country.
- Subjective right: Power to do something specific, e.g., voting.
- Positive law: Laws enacted by a state.
- Natural law: Universal ethical principles guiding positive law, based on human dignity.
Legality and Legitimacy in Law
Legality means compliance with a country’s laws. Legitimacy examines if a law aligns with moral principles of justice. Legal positivism separates ethics and law, arguing law’s foundation is in political and legal institutions. Legality and legitimacy are not always identical. Natural law theories accept objective, universal values guiding positive law. Medieval Christian thought identified natural law with divine law. Modern natural law trusts human reason. Integrative theories attempt to reconcile these positions, claiming law is standard but subject to justice.
The Theoretical Model
Contents:
- Recognition of individual rights before the law, defending fundamental values.
- Rejection of illegitimate differences, protecting equality and justice.
- Participation in political power through freedom.
- Rationality as conflict resolution, avoiding irrational violence.
- Legal guarantees protecting citizens from arbitrariness.
- Social function of property, defending equality.
- Aid policies based on essential equality, addressing poverty.
Political Theories
Theories differ in their treatment of political power’s source or legitimacy:
- Organismic theory: Humans find happiness in community (Aristotle).
- Individualistic theory: Individuals choose common power for coexistence.
- Absolutist theory: Power should be absolute over citizens.
- Liberal theory: Power is legitimized by respecting rights and freedoms.
Justice as Equality
Aristotle distinguished commutative and distributive justice. Equality is twofold: natural and political/legal. “All humans are equal” implies political equality, granting equal status and equality before the law. Justice as equality relates to the democratic rule of law.
Current Political and Ethical Challenges
Challenges include breaches of ethical models and ensuring human rights are respected. Main problems:
- Denial of individual rights, tyranny, attacks on life.
- Persistence of inequalities (economic, religious, racial).
- Absence of democracy, despite its growth.
- Irrational fanaticism leading to violence.
- Legal arbitrariness in dictatorial regimes.
- Poverty, when property has a social function.
- Lack of solidarity, requiring global solutions.