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Criminal Law: Rules and Theory

Law and morality, law and justice in the criminal law

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Units 3 and 4

Overview

Criminal conduct that most people would not regard as immoral, immoral conduct that is not criminal and central claim of Lord Devlin's argument about law and morality.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What does procedural justice require of a criminal trial?

Key term

Explain what is meant by saying that criminal law and morality overlap.

Key term

Give an example of criminal conduct that most people would not regard as immoral.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Explain what is meant by saying that criminal law and morality overlap.

    Model answer

    Many crimes such as murder and theft also breach widely shared moral rules, so the law enforces a moral standard as well as maintaining public order.

  2. 2

    Give an example of criminal conduct that most people would not regard as immoral.

    Model answer

    Many regulatory and strict liability offences, such as parking contraventions or minor licensing breaches, attract punishment without any moral fault.

  3. 3

    Give an example of immoral conduct that is not criminal.

    Model answer

    Adultery and lying to a friend are widely condemned as immoral but attract no criminal sanction at all.

  4. 4

    What was the central claim of Lord Devlin's argument about law and morality?

    Model answer

    Devlin argued that a shared morality holds society together, so the law may punish conduct that the reasonable person would regard with real disgust even where nobody else is harmed.

  5. 5

    How did Professor Hart answer Devlin?

    Model answer

    Hart argued that the law should restrain only conduct that harms others, and that enforcing private morality invades individual liberty and freezes moral change.

  6. 6

    Which 1957 report recommended that private homosexual acts between consenting adults be decriminalised?

    Model answer

    The Wolfenden Report recommended decriminalisation, on the view that private morality was not the law's business.

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