What is the relationship between law and morality?

There are three basic relationships between law and morality:

The first is the legalization of morality.

That is, through legislation, most of the general requirements of the country's political morality, economic morality, social morality and family ethics are legalized, transformed into the will of the country, and become a universally binding social code of conduct guaranteed by the state's coercive power.

Generally speaking, morality is the basis of legal legitimacy and rationality, and what morality requires or prohibits is often an important basis for the law to make relevant provisions. Therefore, most legislation to adjust social relations and regulate social behavior is the result of moral legalization.

In China, socialist morality is the source of law, an important basis for making laws and an important criterion for evaluating the good and evil of laws. Since the reform and opening up, our party and country have attached great importance to legislative work and constantly strengthened democratic and scientific legislation. After more than 30 years' efforts, China has formed a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics.

In this legal system, many legal provisions reflect the inherent requirements of socialist morality and are the positive results of legalization of socialist morality. For example, China's laws stipulate honesty and trustworthiness, supporting parents, raising children, respecting and safeguarding human rights, national unity and social stability. On the whole, it reflects or embodies the value orientation and basic requirements of socialist morality.

The second is the decriminalization of morality.

Morality and law are, after all, two different social codes of conduct. Although most morals in a country or society have been or can be legalized, it must be admitted that a few or some morals cannot be legalized.

For example, the love relationship between men and women, the friendly relationship between colleagues, the caring relationship between superiors and subordinates, the ethical requirements for parents' filial piety, and the moral pursuit of disregarding public interests, sacrificing others and helping those in need. Generally, it is difficult to be legalized by being included in the scope of legal adjustment and mandatory norms. Don't legalize these moral problems at will when some morals can't or shouldn't be legalized.

Third, some moral requirements can be legalized or not.

At present, in some places, there are phenomena such as forgetting righteousness, not speaking credit and cheating, which to some extent shows that our laws are lagging behind in promoting and ensuring socialist moral construction. The role of law in promoting and protecting morality is mainly to realize the legalization of a certain morality through legislation, and to confirm and strengthen the value appeal and normative implementation of socialist morality through law.

For immoral acts that need to be prohibited and punished by law, and for moral acts that need to be praised and supported by law, they should be reflected through legislation. We must further strengthen the legislation of socialist moral construction, improve existing laws and regulations and plug legislative loopholes.

Of course, whether the law can intervene, what law, when and how to intervene in the behavior that deviates from socialist morality needs in-depth study before a scientific conclusion can be drawn.

Extended data:

The relationship between law and morality is a long-standing issue in jurisprudence, and many jurisprudence textbooks have special chapters to discuss this issue. In ancient times, there was a dispute between justice and virtue in ancient Greek philosophy, and there was also a dispute between rule of virtue and rule of law in pre-Qin China. These arguments are actually related to this issue.

For a society and a country, it is very important to improve people's moral cultivation, and it is equally important to formulate legal rules. Law and morality have their own boundaries. Morality is morality, and law is law. They have their own scope of action and are completely different categories, so we can't simply focus on one aspect.

As far as legal rules are concerned, both laws formulated by the national legislature and laws evolved from social customs are applicable to the field of social public behavior. In the public sphere restricted by legal rules, maintaining social justice is the basic requirement, and no one may infringe upon the rights of others.

Morality, on the other hand, is more related to personal inner cultivation. You can set high standards, but you can only target yourself and not force others. Therefore, the law takes the public interest as the guideline, and the morality takes imitating the sages as the ideal; Law emphasizes bottom line justice and morality pursues noble personality.

At the same time, law and morality are inextricably linked. Law can provide a beneficial institutional framework for the generation of social morality and a good living environment for the cultivation of personal morality. Law is not morality, but it can purify people's hearts, make them clear, eliminate evil and preserve good.

Therefore, although legal rules are not equal to moral conscience, they can cultivate and inspire people's moral conscience. A society, if everyone stresses rules and acts according to legal rules, is not bad, although it may not be a beautiful society. Law should be deeply rooted in people's hearts, play a role, and conform to the moral pursuit of society.

In other words, legal rules should be benign. This kind of morality does not grow from the legal rules themselves, but the legal rules absorb moral ideas, thus highlighting the moral value of a society.

At the same time, the promotion of social morality, professional ethics, family virtues and personal morality can make people strengthen the sense of rules and the spirit of contract, carry forward social public order and good customs, and consciously abide by the law. In addition, moral requirements that are widely recognized, mature and operable in practice may also rise to legal rules.

It can be seen that the relationship between law and morality cannot be simply separated or integrated. It is definitely not possible to isolate or even completely oppose the two, but it is also not feasible to confuse the two.

It should be clear that the just order established by law is the foundation that any society can not do without. Today, we should not only praise morality, but also believe in the law. Law does not exclude morality, on the contrary, it can promote the growth of morality. This promotion is not a substitute, but provides an institutional environment for morality.

A prosperous society ruled by law is expected to become a society with pure morality. This is like a grassland with mixed qualities. The rule of law is like a farmer, resisting the invasion of power with a shotgun and rooting out creeping weeds with a sickle. In this way, the flower of morality will be fragrant and open. ?

People's Network: Law and morality cannot be neglected.

People's Network: Three Basic Relationships between Law and Morality