Ethics and Law

ETHICS AND LAW
• Ethics deals with morality and morality presupposes a norm or law of conduct by which right is distinguished from wrong.
• Law may be defined as crystallized ethics.

The Metaphysical Basis of Law
• Everything is good because every being that everything and end suited to this nature. This is another way of saying that everything has its natural law.
• Normality of Function is the proper way in which by reason of its specific end, it should achieve the fullness of its being or its growth.
• Natural law in general is as we just seen, “the ideal formula of development of a given thing; it might be compared with an algebraic equation, say of a curve to which all curves in reality must conform or resemble at least in order to be true curve at all.

General Concept of Law
• Law in its widest sense, means a rule or norm which governs the nature and/ or actions of things.
• All beings in the universe, whether living or non-living, are governed by laws in this sense. These laws styled: “laws of nature” or simply natural laws.
• We also speak of the laws which control the biological functions of plants and animals, such as the laws of nutrition, growth, reproduction, etc. in every case, a law is conceived as directive of action.
• Law refers to the free acts of rational beings, to the violation acts of men. Thus, in its ethical or strictest sense, the term law means the rule of conduct which governs, directs, or regulates the free acts of men.

The Eternal Law
• There is in every man, the voice of reason which tells him of a law: Do good and avoid evil.
• Law proceeds from First Cause, the Supreme Lawgiver who is the ultimate source of all laws and the obligations. The moral law then is nothing else but the eternal laws, the law of God, made known to man by reason
• There exists in god an eternal law: As Aquinas profoundly observes: “Just as in every artificer, there pre-exists an exemplar of the things that are set up by his art, so too, in every governor there must pre-exist the exemplary of the order of things that are to be done by those who are subject to his government.
• The eternal law then applies to all creatures, rational, irrational, animate, inanimate. The law so applied to created things is what is called the natural law or law of nature.

The Physical and Moral Law
• A law in order to be true must be promulgated or made known to the subject in order to be truly binding
• This law of conscience is called the natural moral law. It is nothing else but the same eternal law made known to man by reason. “God has written His law, not on blocks of marble or on scrolls of paper; but on the heart of man.
• Herein lies another difference between the physical and the natural moral law. In the former, there is no freedom of choice. Inanimate objects for instance, act necessarily, invariably in accordance with the law.


Human Positive Laws and the Moral Laws
Positive laws are the laws of the state. The laws of the state are based on and derive their binding force from the natural moral law. When legislators enact laws, they really do not make the laws; they merely re-state, interpret, determine or specify what is contained in a general way in the natural moral law.
The function of the positive laws is to clarify and apply to specific cases, the general principles of the natural moral law. Without positive laws, the moral law would be subject to the individual interpretations of man and there will arise many conflicting interpretations and this would inevitably result into social disorder and chaos. Everybody knows that without the proper sanctions, the law can be easily violated because violators could do so with impunity.

Quotations
“There are eternal, immutable laws of good and evil to which the Creator Himself in all His dispensations, conforms; and which he has enabled human nature to discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct of human actions.”
“Let it not be forgotten, let it be emphasized, repeated, emblazoned in the halls of every legislative body, that morality is a fundamental principle in legislation.”

Life and Law
Very early in life man becomes aware that he is living in a world of laws.
“If he reflects at all upon these laws, he realizes that they are not of his choosing – in fact, in many cases they are the reverse of what he would have chosen, but that their powers is in no way affected by his disapproval.”
“There is no way in which he can get free of them. He can act as though they did not exist, in which case they damage or even destroy him. If he is a sane man, he may dislike them but he accepts them, and does his best to live with them.”
“As there are laws that govern the body so there are laws – in particular, the moral law – which governs the soul. The moral law is no more made by man, or dependent on the approval of man, or in any way escapable by man, than the material law.”


Law and Justice
Laws are made for the purpose of securing the common good.
Laws according to Thomas Aquinas, can be unjust in two ways:
1. When they are contrary to the common good:
a. as when a government imposes on subjects burdensome laws which promote not the good of the people but the selfish interest of the rulers;
b. when the rulers enact laws outside of their powers;
c. when the laws are discriminatory in their impositions.
2. Laws can also be unjust when they contravene or run counter to the natural law or the divine law.