The relationships between law and ethics present a common discussion topic. Ethical standards depend on social norms and are partly innate (Dekeyser et al., 2018). For example, it is unacceptable to kill the neighbor from the ethical and from the legal perspectives. For many people, some actions are ethically unacceptable regardless of society’s beliefs or the threat of sanctions if they are committed. For instance, Christians do not sin because their moral principles do not allow it, not because the secular law forbids them. The concept of law is much younger than the concept of moral norms. The need for formal regulation of human relations arose only after the Neolithic revolution when human communities began to have a significant number of members (Dekeyser et al., 2018). It is possible to hypothesize that the laws started to appear when it became impossible to resolve all conflicts privately without common regulations. Laws represent the complex system of regulations that contribute to the support of order in society and ensure that moral principles are pursued.
The first laws were created based on the ethical norms, which means that regulations and morality initially overlapped. With the emergence of states, the law supported the chosen authorities (Dekeyser et al., 2018). In this aspect, the law is stricter than ethics and even denies the ethical principle of equality. Despite the similarities between ethics and law, the functions of the law are different. It is a specific set of rules in case of violation of which an individual is threatened with sanctions (Dekeyser et al., 2018). On the other hand, ethics is a set of recommendations, and violation of its rules can only lead to moral condemnation by society.
Even though the law is sourced from ethical rules and significantly exceeds the limits of moral standards, the law is designed to be ethically neutral or even unethical. The law does not pursue its own moral goals and primarily focuses on ensuring the safety and prosperity of the population. For example, while moral norms may encourage the permanent exile of criminals from society, those who have been punished by law can return to society. Therefore, laws developed from moral rules but they are stricter than ethics in forcing offenders to punishment. Furthermore, the law denies some of the core principles of ethics. Lastly, despite its connection with moral values, the law is primarily neutral because it is designed to make objective judgments.
Reference
Dekeyser, T., & Garrett, B. L. (2018). Ethics≠law. Area, 50(3), pp. 410-417.