Question: Is there a role for morality in law? If so, what is this role? In society a moral code could be seen as a set of beliefs, values and principles. The root of morality is good and bad behavior. Moral opinions differ among individuals even within society. A dictionary definition of morality is "a set of personal or social standards for good or bad behavior and characters." Furthermore, the law could be seen as a set of rules assigned by the government to keep society in order by following these rules. John Salmond (1862-1924) defines law as "the body of principles recognized and applied by the State in the administration of justice". This essay aims to examine the relationship between law and morality to address the role that morality plays in law. Natural law theory recognizes that law and morality are linked and believes that human law is defined by morality and not government. Legal positivism is the opposite of this: they argue that the law does not have to be moral, to be law and the law is absolute. An example of this would be the Hart-Fuller debate. The debate centered on Hart-Fuller, a Nazi woman who used the law immorally against her husband. The women reported their husband, who was a German soldier, to the officials, saying that he had made serious remarks against Hitler. The result of this was that her husband was arrested and sent to the Eastern Front. The laws and procedures of the Nazi regime did not accord with moral values. According to Fuller, the Nazi regime was “lawless” and everything within the regime was outside the law. On the other hand, Hart, although he agreed that the law was evil, the Nazi regime at the time was a system of
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