On the Correlations Between Law and Morality

Abstract

The article considers theoretical aspects of the ratio of law and morality. It is argued that law and morality can be compared either as ideals (the ideal is threefold: it is necessary to distinguish between morality, ethics and pleasure/happiness, and both law and morality are related to each of these ideals), or as positive institutions, or as the actual implementation of these institutions. Comparing law and morality, one should proceed from the same type of understanding. Both legal and moral ideals regulate both the external behavior of people and their internal motives. Moreover, both law and morality can not only directly regulate social relations, but also act as a set of attitudes concerning the ideas of a good life («the concept of good»), as well as use their tools to promote social well-being. The defining differences between positive law and positive morality are as follows. If the law (1) comes from the state and (2) is enforced by coercion (or its threat) on the part of the state mechanism, and (3) through special formal procedures of law-making and law-realization, then morality (1) comes from the whole society, (2) is provided by sanctions from any of the members of this society, and (3) there are no formal procedures for the creation, modification, cancellation and application of moral norms. Finally, law and morality can be considered from a sociological perspective. One of the variants of the understanding of morality is that it is defined as the actual established patterns of behavior of people in situations concerning which there is a generally recognized social norm of due. In this case, the law remains to be defined as actual decisions by law enforcement officers in situations regulated by lawmakers.