law and morality AO1

• def of legal rules - made by judges and parliment
• def of morals - beliefs and values shared by society
• durkheim - simiple socieities have set morals - pluralisit socieites have varied morals that differ
• overlap with law and morals - true crimes are based on morals (murder) - regulatory offences have no moral stigma (speeding) - some offences contradict morals (squatting when homeless)
• morals impacting law - marital rape - R V R
• law can impact morals - IVF was seen as morally wrong - human fertilisation and embryology act
• natural law - law should be based on god and nature
• aristotle - law of nature and universe
• st aquinas - all law comes from god
• professor fuller - inner morality - legal systems have 8 requirements
• bentham - law should give the greatest amount of good to the most people
• devlin - common morality between good and evil - law should have maximum freedom, punishment only when its presence is an offence - law sets minmum standard for morality - wolfenden report was too open minded
• hart - law enforcing morals does not allow morals to change - punishment harms the individual - free choice leads to experimentation - exercising free choice is a right - laws should not punish just becuase it disgusts others
• support devlin - shaw v dpp (can't advertise prostitutes) R V Gibson ( foetus earrings) R V Brown - Gillick
• in support of hart - homosexuality was legalised - gillick majority
• hart v fuller - hart nazis were immoral but not guilty followed laws - fuller - guilty - were not just human beings