Governmental respect for individual freedom and the autonomy of nongovernmental spheres of authority is, then, a requirement of political morality. Government must not try to run p
My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I paus
May a conscientious citizen reasonably seek to have the law reflect his or her moral convictions? My answer is that there are circumstances under which such efforts are reasonabl
This entry considers natural law theories only as theories of law. That is not to say that legal theory can be adequately identified and pursued independently of moral and politica
For Thomas Aquinas, as for Aristotle, doing moral philosophy is thinking as generally as possible about what I should choose to do (and not to do), considering my whole life as a f
Lawyers are typically interested in the question: What is the law on a particular issue? This is always a local question and answers to it are bound to differ according to the spec
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "
Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural
Law and morality bear certain similarities. Each speaks of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, of ‘justice’ and ‘injustice’, of ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’ and of ‘principles’ and ‘rules’. There is also the fact that much legislation is justified on moral grounds, as being required by natural (moral) justice. At the same time, it is clear that not every law expresses a moral requirement and not every moral imperative is embodied in law. For example, it is widely held that lying and adultery are morally wrong but neither is prohibited by law (with the exception of the first in relation to giving false evidence, i.e. perjury. Equally there are legal requirements that bear no direct relation to morality, eg to drive on a certain side of the road. Advocates of natural law legal theory (‘jurisprudence’) argue that there should be a close relation between legislation (‘positive law’) and natural justice; whereas proponents of the view that law in independent of morality (legal positivism) deny this. Apart from these deep theoretical issues there is the fact that as the number and reach of laws have increased there is a tendency in the minds of many to think that if something is legally prohibited it must be morally wrong, and if it is legally permitted it must be morally acceptable. It does not take much reflection to see that this is a confusion.