Ethical and Legal Principles

There are different schools of thought as to the role morality should play in the law. According to most religions, the source of the law and morals is the same, the divine will. Others have argued that divine inspiration has nothing to do with law which should have some other basis, such as custom, experience, intuition or rational principles of human conduct. All of the above philosophers agree with Dewey's statement that "mere compulsion has no moral standing" (Boydston, 1989, p. 217).

Since time immemorial, philosophers have searched for a moral source of law thus giving it a credibility which goes beyond the power of the persons or groups who promulgate it. How is one to determine what is moral and therefore to judge whether a law is or is not derived from moral authority?

Morals and Ethics in Greek Philosophy

Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle sought to use the power of reason to determin

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verturned. In modern terms, Hume believed that "gut feel" or intuition was at the base of all moral determinations. John Stuart Mill Mill is an advocate of the philosophy of utilitarianism, a school of moral and political philosophy founded by Jeremy Bentham in the early 19th century. Under utilitarianism, one looks, not to the intent of the actor, but to the consequences of his or her act in judging its morality or immorality. For Bentham, the ultimate test of whether a given action or code of conduct (law) was moral was whether it contributed to the greatest happiness or pleasure of the greatest number. In Bentham's time, the criminal law and the law of property rights appeared to him to be based on immutable principles which were now outdated. Dewey says that prior to utilitarianism, "citizens and groups in the State, may feel that the demands to which they are socially subject are arbitrary and lacking in real authority" Dewey, 1989, p. 225). Warnock says that "the utilitarian spirit led men to ask whether [institutions and laws] worked well" (1974, p. 30). Dewey says that the "its chief practical influence was modification of the laws and institutions that sprang from and that fostered inequality" (Dewey, 1989,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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