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legal enforcement of morals is a farce, and sometimes a nuisance, because certain crimes are undetectable and certain prohibitions are simply unenforceable.
Not only do legal systems enforce morality but they ought to do so. The legitimacy of legal prohibitions on a host of moral wrongs such as murder, rape and burglary is widely taken for granted and not subject to serious dispute.
It offers some reasons for thinking that there is a presumption in favor of the view that it is a proper function of the criminal law to enforce critical morality, including that part of critical morality that is not directly concerned with preventing harm or disrespect to others.
In modern Western political and legal thought, the subject of legal enforcement of morality is narrower than the literal coverage of those terms. That is because much legal enforcement of morality is uncontroversial and rarely discussed.
May 29, 2021 · Some legal norms are enforceable: Using force to prevent and respond to their violation is authorized by law. There may be conceivable legal systems that contain no such authorization (Raz 1975: 158–160). But enforceable legal norms form part of every legal system we know to have existed.
- james.edwards@law.ox.ac.uk
May 19, 2016 · The law uncontroversially enforces much morality that concerns preventing harm to people. Moral judgment is needed to determine what count as relevant harms and to decide what are appropriate bases for legal regulation; but whether law should enforce some aspects of morality is genuinely disputed.
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Is legal enforcement of morality a moral issue?
Does law enforce morality?
Is legal enforcement of morals unenforceable?
Is narrow morality enforceable?
Can morals be enforced?
Are legal systems enforcing morality legitimate?
What is the relationship between the legal and social enforcement of morality? Are there principled moral limits that constrain the enforcement of morality? How should we think about the pragmatic limits to the effective enforcement of morality?