Morality v Law
An IllAdvised Opinion on Morality and Law
Psalm 19:7-8 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
What is the difference between law and morality?
Webster’s puts it very interestingly when it says that morality is the ‘quality of an action which renders it good’. That is the kind of statement that you have to think about a few times before it really sinks in. He is saying that morality is the ‘quality’ of an action that renders it ‘good’. Like when you measure someone with a measuring tape and pronounce them ‘tall’ or ‘short’, in the same way you use ‘morality ‘to measure an action and pronounce it ‘good’ or ‘evil’.
Whether or not we agree on that it is important that we get to the relationship between morality and law, and I think we can agree that morality is systemic to all of nature whereas law…
… Well, wait, which kind of law? Let’s notice, first, that the word ‘law’ is really, really big. Let’s start by eliminating from our discussion issues such as ‘natural law’; both from the moral standpoint and the ‘apples fall from trees’ standpoint. Not because these are unimportant, but because they are not what is intended to being compared.
But can we eliminate the ‘law of God’; either meaning the Torah in its application to civil behavior, or the more general ‘All of God’s Word’ in its application to all of life when we make a ‘law vs morality’ comparison? I don’t think so, not on a deep level, but let’s start with…
Modern, fiat, civil law. Let’s limit our discussion, just for a second, to the idea of something that congress passed, the president signed, and the police enforce.
Let us then notice that law is morality externalized and given force in a given jurisdiction. I am not saying that laws are ‘moral’, but that they are ‘morality’. In other words, in order to pass a ‘law’ in a given jurisdiction someone must say, at least to themselves, “I believe that it is ‘right’ to pass this law.” And given what laws do, then that must mean that the law itself enforces some kind of ‘right’, if tangentially. The smallest and most meaningless law must, at some point and in some fashion, have expressed itself that way, at least to its author. (Note: This implies that the law was ‘passed’ by someone. If a law can come into being without active human involvement then it is possible that the law might not represent human thought. This would be true, for example, of a typo; or of an unforeseen problem in grammar or the like. What I am saying is that the root, the ground, the initial idea of any law must have impressed someone as being ‘right’.)
Let us take a trivial law. Even a stupid law. Let’s take a building permit. I have lived in jurisdictions where all you have to do to get a building permit is ask for one and pay a fee. Some may then think, “Well, so there is no ‘right’ action involved!” Actually… not.
First of all, if a fee is indeed paid then there are a huge number of people who think that involves a ‘right’ all in of itself: the government needs to be funded, ergo fees being paid are good.
Secondly asking for a permit is, in and of itself, a form of communication. And many people consider communication, in and of itself, to be good. And communication with the government even more so.
And asking permission
So what is the distinction between law and morality? Law is the rules that are put in place, in a given jurisdiction, in a given time, for a given place and situation. Morality is the code that motivates you to pass those laws, enforce those laws, get rid of other laws.
Morality is expressed as individual motivations, law is usually expressed as a group compromise. Thus a Jew and a Christian, while having different underlying moralities, may come together to pass a law that they can both agree on, or compromise on. One that represents in some fashion or form at least part of their moral understanding.
Morality is relational at its core, law is objective and technical. (Man’s law, fiat law, that is. God’s law is relational.) Many moderns forget that there was a time when the idea of ‘rule of law’ was actually a debated issue. That the (one of the) alternative(s) is ‘rule by a person’. Indeed for most of history rule by person was the norm, not the exception or historical artifact. Indeed much of the world nowadays tends to live under ‘rule by person’ in one fashion or another. Even in the United States such things as ‘prosecutorial discretion’ and ‘presidential pardon’ points to a tension between rule by law and rule by person.
And the reason for that tension is morality. We all recognize two very important moral issues: that it is immoral to punish someone for a crime they didn’t know they were committing and that it is immoral to punish someone ‘by the book’ if the thing they did was not actually wrong. We all recognize that both of these things can and will be violated, but we don’t call them right but ‘unfortunate necessities of the system’ or some such. And so we all turn, instinctively, to ‘a person’ for redress from this. We expect the prosecutor or even policeman, seeing a technical violation of some law to turn a blind eye if the technical violation was not ‘a problem’. (Indeed we get very angry when that does not happen.) We even expect the president to pardon someone who, even tho convicted of an actual violation of some by the courts and jury and all, if there is something extenuating or ‘unjust’ about the result.
That is because morality, while finding expression in law, cannot be contained or constrained by a finite written code. The vagaries of human behavior are too infinitely complex for that.
This finds perhaps its most ultimate expression in that most foundational and fundamental of all human jurisdictions: the family. Most families at one time or another make some passing attempt to establish ‘rules’ for their household. For most families this attempt is desultory at best. Or perhaps they only express a few foundational principles.
But that is far from saying that there is no ‘law’ in families. Children are taught from their birth that there are ‘laws’, perhaps rivaling those of the Medes and Persians, that govern their house. And unlike the ‘laws’ of their civil society these laws are often expressed directly attacked to their moral roots. Indeed it would be difficult to tease out what part of ‘that’s naughty’ is morality and what part is ‘law’.
References
Morality
MORAL'ITY, noun The doctrine or system of moral duties, or the duties of men in their social character; ethics.
The system of morality to be gathered from the writings of ancient sages, falls very short of that delivered in the gospel.
1. The practice of the moral duties; virtue. We often admire the politeness of men whose morality we question.
2. The quality of an action which renders it good; the conformity of an act to the divine law, or to the principles of rectitude. This conformity implies that the act must be performed by a free agent, and from a motive of obedience to the divine will. This is the strict theological and scriptural sense of morality But we often apply the word to actions which accord with justice and human laws, without reference to the motives form which they proceed.
Websters 1828
Law
LAW, noun [Latin lex; from the root of lay. See lay. A law is that which is laid, set or fixed, like statute, constitution, from Latin statuo.]
1. A rule, particularly an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their actions, particularly their social actions. Laws are imperative or mandatory, commanding what shall be done; prohibitory, restraining from what is to be forborn; or permissive, declaring what may be done without incurring a penalty. The laws which enjoin the duties of piety and morality, are prescribed by God and found in the Scriptures.
LAW is beneficence acting by rule.
2. Municipal law is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state, commanding what its subjects are to do, and prohibiting what they are to forbear; a statute.
Municipal or civil laws are established by the decrees, edicts or ordinances of absolute princes, as emperors and kings, or by the formal acts of the legislatures of free states. law therefore is sometimes equivalent to decree, edict, or ordinance.
3. law of nature, is a rule of conduct arising out of the natural relations of human beings established by the Creator, and existing prior to any positive precept. Thus it is a law of nature, that one man should not injure another, and murder and fraud would be crimes, independent of any prohibition from a supreme power.
4. Laws of animal nature, the inherent principles by which the economy and functions of animal bodies are performed, such as respiration, the circulation of the blood, digestion, nutrition, various secretions, etc.
5. Laws of vegetation, the principles by which plats are produced, and their growth carried on till they arrive to perfection.
6. Physical laws, or laws of nature. The invariable tendency or determination of any species of matter to a particular form with definite properties, and the determination of a body to certain motions, changes, and relations, which uniformly take place in the same circumstances, is called a physical law These tendencies or determinations, whether called laws or affections of matter, have been established by the Creator, and are, with a peculiar felicity of expression, denominated in Scripture, ordinances of heaven.
7. Laws of nations, the rules that regulate the mutual intercourse of nations or states. These rules depend on natural law or the principles of justice which spring from the social state; or they are founded on customs, compacts, treaties, leagues and agreements between independent communities.
By the law of nations, we are to understand that code of public instruction, which defines the rights and prescribes the duties of nations, in their intercourse with each other.
8. Moral law a law which prescribes to men their religious and social duties, in other words, their duties to God and to each other. The moral law is summarily contained in the decalogue or ten commandments, written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, and delivered to Moses on mount Sinai.
Exodus 20:1.
9. Ecclesiastical law a rule of action prescribed for the government of a church; otherwise called canon law
10. Written law a law or rule of action prescribed or enacted by a sovereign, and promulgated and recorded in writing; a written statute, ordinance, edict or decree.
11. Unwritten or common law a rule of action which derives its authority from long usage, or established custom, which has been immemorially received and recognized by judicial tribunals. As this law can be traced to no positive statutes, its rules or principles are to be found only in the records of courts, and in the reports of judicial decisions.
12. By-law, a law of a city, town or private corporation. [See By.]
13. Mosaic law the institutions of Moses, or the code of laws prescribed to the Jews, as distinguished from the gospel.
14. Ceremonial law the Mosaic institutions which prescribe the external rites and ceremonies to be observed by the Jews, as distinct from the moral precepts, which are of perpetual obligation.
15. A rule of direction; a directory; as reason and natural conscience.
These, having not the law as a law to themselves. Romans 2:12.
16. That which governs or has a tendency to rule; that which has the power of controlling.
But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:1.
17. The word of God; the doctrines and precepts of God, or his revealed will.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalms 1:2.
18. The Old Testament.
Is it not written in your law I said, ye are gods? John 10:34.
19. The institutions of Moses, as distinct from the other parts of the Old Testament; as the law and the prophets.
20. A rule or axiom of science or art; settled principle; as the laws of versification or poetry.
21. law martial, or martial law the rules ordained for the government of an army or military force.
22. Marine laws, rules for the regulation of navigation, and the commercial intercourse of nations.
23. Commercial law law-merchant, the system of rules by which trade and commercial intercourse are regulated between merchants.
24. Judicial process; prosecution of right in courts of law
Tom Touchy is a fellow famous for taking the law of every body.
Hence the phrase, to go to law to prosecute; to seek redress in a legal tribunal.
25. Jurisprudence; as in the title, Doctor of Laws.
26. In general, law is a rule of action prescribed for the government of rational beings or moral agents, to which rule they are bound to yield obedience, in default of which they are exposed to punishment; or law is a settled mode or course of action or operation in irrational beings and in inanimate bodies.
Civil law criminal law [See Civil and Criminal.]
LAWs of honor. [See Honor.]
LAW language, the language used in legal writings and forms, particularly the Norman dialect or Old French, which was used in judicial proceedings from the days of William the conqueror to the 36th year of Edward III.
Wager of law a species of trial formerly used in England, in which the defendant gave security that he would, on a certain day, make his law that is, he would make oath that he owed nothing to the plaintiff, and would produce eleven of his neighbors as compurgators, who should swear that they believed in their consciences that he had sworn the truth.
LAW'-BREAKER, noun One who violates the law