Legal Regulation of Morality

Abstract

Having considered the relevance of morality to the distinction between natural law and positivist theories, it is now appropriate to come down to the more immediate and specific question of the extent (if any) to which the law may properly seek to enforce individual morality. Admittedly, the central question discussed in this chapter is sometimes expressed rather differently, in terms of the legal enforcement of private morality, but this formulation is best avoided, at least as a starting point, because it assumes that there is such a thing as private morality; and, as this chapter will demonstrate, the question of the validity of this assumption may well be at the heart of the debate.