HUMA 1825 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Legal Ethics, Totalitarianism
12 Dec 2019
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Document Summary
Ever since the revival of the scientific study of jurisprudence the connection of law and morality has much discussed, but the question is not yet, and perhaps never will be settled. The question is an important one, and upon the answer which is given to it depends upon the answer which is consequences. The problem is an intensely practical one. The average man regards law as justice systematized, and justice itself as a somewhat chaotic mass of moral principles. This, like all other popular conceptions, is inadequate for scientific purposes, and the jurist, so for at least as he is also a scientist, is compelled to abandon it. For it is contradicted by the fact s. positive laws do not rest upon moral laws and common notions of justice furnish no court of appeal from the decrees of the state. The average man confounds law and morality, and identifies the rules of law with the principles of abstract justice.
