Law versus morality

[robvalue]

There seems to be some disagreement on the interaction between morality and (man made) laws. My position is that the morality people generally agree on at any given time is certainly a factor in deciding laws, but it is not the only factor, and the law itself is not supposed to represent morality.

In essence, laws are there to serve society in the best way that they can. That is of course a highly complex process, with no right or wrong answers, so it is ideally the result of debate and due process.

Let's consider a simple example. Imagine that a law says, "Murder is illegal. Anyone who is found to have committed a murder will be sentenced to 30 years in jail." This isn't explicitly saying murder is immoral. People are free to interpret it that way if they want, but it isn't part of the wording or the system.

Now let's look at a couple of different variations:

"Murder is immoral." - What does this even mean? As a law, this would be next to useless. It would just be an attempt to dissuade people from murder, by encouraging people to consider it to be wrong. Even in this regard it is pretty stupid, because it's simply telling them that it's wrong. The government doesn't get to decide people's opinions. It would be hoping that this declaration, without an actual objective cause of action if the law is "broken", would be enough.

"Murder is illegal and immoral. Anyone who is found to have committed a murder will be sentenced to 30 years in jail."- What does the bolded part add, in any practical sense, to the law? It looks a little stupid to me, to be blunt. Again, you can't dictate opinion, and this isn't going to change anyone's ideas about the morality of murder.

The law has to be stated in a way that can be enforced in a reasonably objective way, and moral judgements are an irrelevance. Of course, mitigating factors should absolutely be considered, and each case has to be taken on its merits. Morality probably will end up playing some sort of part in the actual court case. But including it explicitly as part of the law is pointless, in my opinion.

One can simply announce that the government is telling people that illegal acts are immoral and everything else is moral/okay, but I don't think this is supported or accurate. As a simple example, here in England adultery is not illegal. However, I'd fully expect 90%+ of people living here to consider adultery immoral.