Aren't law and ethics actually mutually exclusive?
If someone is ethical, they have an internal compass to guide them between right and wrong. Laws are external means of making you do "right" or "wrong" and are likely written from a standard different from your own or a consensus position.
Thoughts?
Answer:
Laws are different from country to country. Ethics are too.
Could your ethics survive in Iraq? Vice versa? What is right in one place may not be right in another. But does one's ethics change as they travel?
Generally speaking, laws are enacted to afford the greatest good for the majority. Laws are also generally derived or based on ethical conduct for that locale.
I look at it more that laws are the enforcement tools of the ethics for the majority in a state/country.
Currently in the USA, the majority have no ethical problem with abortion so it is legal. But is this an ethical act for 100% of the population? Thus, there are laws to try to cover grey areas... areas or actions in dispute.
Not exclusive to each other at all. In fact, meant to be complimentary.
wow. i never thought about it like that before. very true
Yes, but what is your definition of "ethical"? Ah, the problem of cultural relativism.
Laws give us an even playing field to work on. The majority is sometimes (maybe *usually*) wrong, but playing by the rules gives us a chance to see that basic principles are enforced.
That is, if the law hasn't been twisted around and used for less-than-ethical purposes. But for all intents and purposes here, pretend that our governments are only there to protect & serve us.
Political and social change always warps what is ethical in the first place, anyway. Internal compasses get screwed up, and the law's job is to adapt to that.
This is a question that has been at the heart of law theories for centuries. You should have a look on the net for theories of positivism, liberalism and natural law. Personally I believe that they are not mutually exclusive as many laws have to have a degree of public agreement or else they would be unenforceable. The law is an ideal way of providing ethics for situations in which personal ideas of ethics differ. So to me, the law is a clarifcation of what is acceptable in a certain society.
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