Philosophy of Law:

Understanding the nature of law has been the main concern of many people. The formulation of the theories and concepts in order to help understanding the nature of law, the roles of law in society and the sources of its authority is referred to as Philosophy of Law. The philosophy of law in English-speaking countries is also used synonymously to term jurisprudence; this term is also used to refer the subdivisions of the field.

Though it is referred to as philosophy of law, the part philosophy of law is left untouched mostly due to the conflicts of different schools of philosophy. Even the practitioners of different draw different concepts and diverse philosophical outlooks without having series commitment to the entire philosophical outlook. The philosophy of law cannot even be treated as the branch of philosophy like, political philosophy, epistemology, ethics, or logic. But all these branches of philosophy play a vital role in the philosophy of law.

On reckoning the fundamentals of philosophy, the importance is given in bringing out the distinction between the morality and law. There are several questions that are raised which influenced the distinction very much. Even when it does represent morality is it a moral duty to obey the law if so what are the limits to it?  How far and in what sense should the law of a community seek to give effect to its morality? If there is legal rule which direct a kind of conduct that would breach morality and goes opposite to morality which one should a citizen obey? Is it possible to overthrow legal system if it is in conflict with morality?

The word law in all these questions refers to form social controls that exist in the modern society which is secular and politically organized. To answer the question what is morality, there are many answer. For morality can refer to the community’s relevant behavioral patterns, societies recognized behavior patterns, the set of moral ideal which individual would accept to bind themselves and would persuade other to follow whether the other person agree or not. This form is called individual morality. Just like law controlling the country these moral conducts are means for controlling the conduct of the human being with a set of normative standards.

The moral norms and the legal ethics changes from place to place and there is a persistent theme which shifts one historical period theme to another. There is a constant search for unchanging norms which is also called universal ethics which would be valid throughout in the philosophy of law.

Questions:

• What is philosophy of law?
• What is the difference between morality and law?