The Morality of Law

The ultimate justification for the topics covered in this book might be that it recognizes certain disagreements about how law ought to be applied, that certain questions might be raised with any authority that seeks to apply laws in a manner which, according to Lon Fuller, seems to violate "practical wisdom applied to problems that may broadly be called those of social architecture. St. Thomas Aquinas stands for many as a kind of symbol of all that is dogmatic and theological in the tradition of natural law. Yet as one writer has recently pointed out, Aquinas in some measure recognized and dealt with all eight of the principles of legality discussed in my second chapter." (pp. 241-2). If anything, trying to impose morality on an enterprise as quixotic as the law is more likely to meet with indifference today than ever, and already in Chapter IV of this book, Fuller admitted that scholars could mean him when discussing "Law and Morals" and complaining: "Again, if this is what the necessary connexion of law and morality means, we may accept it. It is unfortunately compatible with very great iniquity." (p. 154). Just thinking about very great iniquity reminds me of what most people think prosecutors are for, and in the interest of harmony in the marketplace, I will make no further comments on this book. If only the law could always be so lucky.