Lecture 1: Law, Morality, and Justice
● What is the purpose of law?
○ Order, peace, justice
● What is the foundation of law?
○ The foundation of law is based on a clear set of morals and ethics
○ Law will give us some measure of order
● Structures through which law functions:
○ Reflect the dominant moral positions in society
○ Difficulty: we don’t all agree on what is right and what is wrong
● Aristotle:
○ Natural justice: arises from the world which we live, independent of human action
○ Conventional justice: arises from human action and intervention, stuff of laws,
courts, governance
○ In order for us to be able to discover the fundamental purpose of life (ex.
happiness), we need to have a set of laws and conditions in place (good
governance)
■ There may be a ‘natural law’ but we need more than that to structure the
manner in which we pursue our goals → what we need is good law
● Laws and justice are connected with how we act when confronted with choices we have
to make
○ Law cannot help but involve moral matters (based on one’s idea of what’s right
and wrong)
○ How do we know that the laws we have are good?
● Lon Fuller:
○ Law is “the enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules”
○ The moral authority of law making resides in the procedures through which
people carry out the rule of law in a given context
○ Those procedures must possess a coherent and unique ‘internal morality’ that
implies a set of ‘distinctive, internal rules that legal practitioners follow’
■ What makes a law moral is the process by which we interpret the rules
○ It is internal morality which makes law and obedience to law possible
■ So if law is not made farley, then one should not be forced to follow it
○ Fuller’s min. requirements for law making to have ‘internal morality’:
■ Generality: No ad hoc law (law that is not randomly made without a
process, ex. When a sovereign makes a rule based on their power only)
■ Promulgation: the people must be informed of, and able to know the rules
, ■ No retroactive law: rulemaking is always prospective (only applied from
the point at which it is made active)
■ Clarity: everyone understands the rules
■ Non-contradiction: the rules do not contradict each other
■ Possibility of compliance: the rules do no ask the impossible of the
people
■ Constancy: the rules are no constantly changing
■ Congruence between the declared rules and official action
○ John Finnis: realization of ‘self-evident moral truths’
■ He says that a natural law theory is only a theory of good reasons for
choice
■ Most of us have a natural sense of what is good for us and thus are able to
recognize the clear values that lie at the heart of morality
■ Human beings flourish bes when gathered in communities
■ Healthy communities require a “common code of conduct that ordered and
coordinates interactions” (coercively and through regulation) to achieve a
common good
● Law is such a code; it enables people to pursue basic goods
■ ‘Just laws’ are guided by moral principles that encourage ‘human
flourishing’
● 7 basic factors integral to ‘human flourishing’
○ The valuing and transmission of life
○ Knowledge for its own self (not as a means to an end)
○ Play (the ability to do something enjoyable)
○ Aesthetic experience (a form of expression)
○ Sociability and friendship
○ Practical reasonableness which infuse life with an
intelligent and reasonable order (understand how life works
so that one is grounded)
○ Religion or spirituality (morals often come from here,
which affects the understanding of just law)
● Human being flourish when in communities and lawmakers often
think of the common good (if it doesn’t reflect the common good
then it isn’t just.)
● Summary:
○ Valid law must be based on morally defensible grounds
■ Fuller: Valid law must embrace an ‘internal morality’ that materializes
through rules, practices, and procedures appropriate to the craft of law
making.
● What is the purpose of law?
○ Order, peace, justice
● What is the foundation of law?
○ The foundation of law is based on a clear set of morals and ethics
○ Law will give us some measure of order
● Structures through which law functions:
○ Reflect the dominant moral positions in society
○ Difficulty: we don’t all agree on what is right and what is wrong
● Aristotle:
○ Natural justice: arises from the world which we live, independent of human action
○ Conventional justice: arises from human action and intervention, stuff of laws,
courts, governance
○ In order for us to be able to discover the fundamental purpose of life (ex.
happiness), we need to have a set of laws and conditions in place (good
governance)
■ There may be a ‘natural law’ but we need more than that to structure the
manner in which we pursue our goals → what we need is good law
● Laws and justice are connected with how we act when confronted with choices we have
to make
○ Law cannot help but involve moral matters (based on one’s idea of what’s right
and wrong)
○ How do we know that the laws we have are good?
● Lon Fuller:
○ Law is “the enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules”
○ The moral authority of law making resides in the procedures through which
people carry out the rule of law in a given context
○ Those procedures must possess a coherent and unique ‘internal morality’ that
implies a set of ‘distinctive, internal rules that legal practitioners follow’
■ What makes a law moral is the process by which we interpret the rules
○ It is internal morality which makes law and obedience to law possible
■ So if law is not made farley, then one should not be forced to follow it
○ Fuller’s min. requirements for law making to have ‘internal morality’:
■ Generality: No ad hoc law (law that is not randomly made without a
process, ex. When a sovereign makes a rule based on their power only)
■ Promulgation: the people must be informed of, and able to know the rules
, ■ No retroactive law: rulemaking is always prospective (only applied from
the point at which it is made active)
■ Clarity: everyone understands the rules
■ Non-contradiction: the rules do not contradict each other
■ Possibility of compliance: the rules do no ask the impossible of the
people
■ Constancy: the rules are no constantly changing
■ Congruence between the declared rules and official action
○ John Finnis: realization of ‘self-evident moral truths’
■ He says that a natural law theory is only a theory of good reasons for
choice
■ Most of us have a natural sense of what is good for us and thus are able to
recognize the clear values that lie at the heart of morality
■ Human beings flourish bes when gathered in communities
■ Healthy communities require a “common code of conduct that ordered and
coordinates interactions” (coercively and through regulation) to achieve a
common good
● Law is such a code; it enables people to pursue basic goods
■ ‘Just laws’ are guided by moral principles that encourage ‘human
flourishing’
● 7 basic factors integral to ‘human flourishing’
○ The valuing and transmission of life
○ Knowledge for its own self (not as a means to an end)
○ Play (the ability to do something enjoyable)
○ Aesthetic experience (a form of expression)
○ Sociability and friendship
○ Practical reasonableness which infuse life with an
intelligent and reasonable order (understand how life works
so that one is grounded)
○ Religion or spirituality (morals often come from here,
which affects the understanding of just law)
● Human being flourish when in communities and lawmakers often
think of the common good (if it doesn’t reflect the common good
then it isn’t just.)
● Summary:
○ Valid law must be based on morally defensible grounds
■ Fuller: Valid law must embrace an ‘internal morality’ that materializes
through rules, practices, and procedures appropriate to the craft of law
making.
