Q&A: Law and Morality
Law and Morality
Question
People usually say that there is a difference between law and morality on the level of a person’s motives. In morality (deontological morality), an act is judged to be moral if the intentions and motives of the person who did it were moral. Law, by contrast, is usually satisfied with the desired outcome of a certain kind of behavior. If that outcome is actually achieved, the law has no interest in examining the person’s motives.
But this seems difficult, since someone who commits a legal offense is judged according to his intentions when he committed the offense! A person’s intentions and motives are an essential element of his criminal liability.
Isn’t that a contradiction to what I wrote above?
Answer
Not at all. The offense is defined in terms of the result. The punishment depends on criminal intent. For example, it is generally accepted that ignorance of the law does not exempt one from punishment. Beyond that, positive commandment obligations do not exist in secular law at all.