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No Moral Norm Can be a Legal Norm Per Se


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1 Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India
     

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Morals are a set of beliefs or guidelines that people follow based on their culture or society. Morals are almost always different for individuals because morals are based on an individual's interpretation of what's good. In the legalist spirit, the difference between morals and law is reflected .On one hand, one should not regard law as some-thing superior and should not make use of some behaviour beyond the power of law to degrade social morals. On the other hand, we should not look upon morals as something superior, so as to blur the boundary between crime and non-crime with the effect that criminals are forgiven. What is most important for research into the difference between morals and law lies in discovering a way of applying their mutual action. The mutual action of morality and law can be elucidated in an aspect. Firstly, the moral norm can be used to defend law and to keep it stable, authentic and perduring. For instance, any behaviour forbidden by law, such as betrayal of one's motherland, em-bezzlement and robbery, can be viewed as an immoral, illegitimate and ignominious act. A criminal act often starts from an immoral one and progresses from a breach of a moral norm to breach a legal norm: hence, morals can prevent acts forbidden by law. Secondly, the legal norm has coercive power to maintain and carry out moral norms. Moral norms have far broader effect than legal norms because the moral has an imperceptible influence on human behaviour which transcends the law.

Keywords

Morals, Criminals, Morality, Authentic, Coercive.
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  • No Moral Norm Can be a Legal Norm Per Se

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Authors

Divya Chugh
Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India

Abstract


Morals are a set of beliefs or guidelines that people follow based on their culture or society. Morals are almost always different for individuals because morals are based on an individual's interpretation of what's good. In the legalist spirit, the difference between morals and law is reflected .On one hand, one should not regard law as some-thing superior and should not make use of some behaviour beyond the power of law to degrade social morals. On the other hand, we should not look upon morals as something superior, so as to blur the boundary between crime and non-crime with the effect that criminals are forgiven. What is most important for research into the difference between morals and law lies in discovering a way of applying their mutual action. The mutual action of morality and law can be elucidated in an aspect. Firstly, the moral norm can be used to defend law and to keep it stable, authentic and perduring. For instance, any behaviour forbidden by law, such as betrayal of one's motherland, em-bezzlement and robbery, can be viewed as an immoral, illegitimate and ignominious act. A criminal act often starts from an immoral one and progresses from a breach of a moral norm to breach a legal norm: hence, morals can prevent acts forbidden by law. Secondly, the legal norm has coercive power to maintain and carry out moral norms. Moral norms have far broader effect than legal norms because the moral has an imperceptible influence on human behaviour which transcends the law.

Keywords


Morals, Criminals, Morality, Authentic, Coercive.