Law and morality perform the same function - the regulation of relations between people, the streamlining of public life. But this is done in different, sometimes even opposite ways.
Both law, acting in the form of law, and morality are a set of prescriptions and prohibitions, the observance of which is expected from a person living among their own kind.
Differences between Law and Morality
Moral attitudes are often called "unwritten laws, " and this is true. These rules, unlike laws, are not fixed in any documents. The obligation to fulfill them is determined only by their recognition by the majority of members of society.
The law is binding and the same for all people living and temporarily in the territory where it operates. Moral principles can be diametrically opposed even within the same family.
Compliance with legal standards is mandatory for a citizen, regardless of whether he accepts them or not. With regard to following moral principles, a person is more free. This is due to the fact that the law has a system of “levers of influence”: the police, the prosecutor’s office, the court, and the penal system.
A violation of the law is followed by a punishment to which a person will be subjected regardless of his beliefs. For example, a citizen can be convinced that stealing a wallet from a wealthy person is not a crime, but he still has to serve time for theft. "Punishment" for an act that is not prohibited by law, but condemned by morality, consists in changing the attitude of others, which a person may not pay attention to.
Figuratively speaking, the law operates "outside", setting limits. Morality acts "from within": a person sets limits for himself, being guided by moral principles inherent in his social group.
The interaction of law and law
Despite all the differences between law and morality, they do not exist in isolation from each other.
In some cases, law and morality coincide, in others they do not. For example, murder is condemned by both law and morality. Leaving a child in a hospital is not a crime in terms of law, but a reprehensible act in terms of morality.
The effectiveness of legislative norms is largely determined by their adoption by society as a whole and by specific people at the level of moral principles. If a legislative order has not become a moral order for a person, a person will observe it only out of fear of punishment. If it is possible to break the law with impunity, such a person will easily decide on this (for example, he will steal a suitcase if there are no witnesses or security cameras nearby).
The fight against piracy in the Russian Federation is indicative in this regard. Its failure is due to the disagreement of most Russians that downloading an unlicensed copy of a movie from the Internet is the same crime as stealing a wallet or stealing a car. Western social advertising, drawing such parallels, does not find a response from the domestic audience.
