Interpret Relation Between Law And Morality In Fuller’s Legal Ethics

The relation between law and ethics is an unfailing issue argued in Chinese and Foreign Legal History of Thought and the History of Ethical Thought for a long time. It is also a critical issue in Legal Ethics. The research to this issue not only enhances the argument between Hart and Fuller on if bad or immoral law could be regarded as law, but also promotes formation of Fuller’s critical philosophy in legal ethics elaborated in his book "Morality of Law".We can analyze the relation between law and ethics from two dimensions that is their difference and connection. The school of jus naturale always emphasizes positive connection between law and ethics. As a typical representative of modern school of jus naturale, Fuller pays more attention to the connection. Therefore the thesis mainly discusses Fuller’s legal ethics through exploring the connection between law and ethics. We can discuss the connection in two sides:internal relevance and external relevance. The external relevance refers to symbiosis and intercommunity of law and ethics in open social rules as the comparatively independent closure rules. The external relevance mainly refers to mutual correspondence, influence and transformation between law and ethics as two open subsystems. Fuller inherits thought of classic jus naturale, enlightens Dworkin on the idea of naturale and sets up Fuller’s new system of jus naturale. In his book "Morality of Law", he rescans the relation between law and ethics from a new viewpoint and realizes the inevitable internal relevance. Therefore the thesis also probes into Fuller’s thought of legal ethics from the internal relevance which is the best breakthrough point to explore Fuller’s philosophy.The thesis includes introduction, five-chapter text and conclusion. Following the consideration of legal value in natural law, Fuller sets up his unique system of legal ethics based on the breakthrough point--the positive relevance between law and morality.Introduction:many domestic and overseas scholars conduct research and achieve a lot in research to Fuller’s legal philosophy. However, few scholars focus on his philosophy in legal ethics and achieve less. Research to Fuller’s philosophy in legal ethics is put forward on the basis of the three issues:theoretical confusion, practical barrier and realistic requirement. Fuller philosophy embodies rich theoretical connotation and great practical value. Core idea of his philosophy lays on his definition to law and elaboration of relation between law and morality. Fuller’s deep exploration and relevant consideration to the two theatrical issues leads to his philosophy in legal ethics. His famous Theory of Legal Business indicates that law is regarded as a business of some kind which makes the human’s behaviors fit for government by rules. Fuller firmly believes that law and morality can not be separated as some positive relevance exists between them.Chapter One analyzes appearance of Fuller’s philosophy in legal ethics and its influence. A great works stands for appearance of ideologists. Completion of a great works closely relates to social background, personal experience and intellectual sources, which inevitably makes Fuller’s legal ethics come into being. His philosophy includes great academic value in principles and subjects and practical significance.Chapter Two analyzes moral foundation and basis of law. Fuller distinguishes morality of obligation and morality of aspiration and introduces legal principles to identify moral standards between morality of obligation and morality of aspiration, derives the principles from mutual expectations, marginal utility, real punishment and spirit awards, and gives legal significance to morality of obligation and morality of aspiration, which helps to find the basis of legal principles and ethics in exploring legal morality and provides logical path to deeply conduct research on legal morality and identify positive relevance between law and morality.Chapter Three analyzes moral structure of law and its functions. Fuller distinguishes legal principles and various functions of internal morality and external morality. Fuller thinks internal morality as natural law of procedure and external morality as natural law of substance, scientifically illustrates internal morality of law from natural law of procedure, raises eight standards to existence of law, and logically verifies that morality makes law available and effective.Chapter Four analyzes the moral value of law and its realization. The basic nature and value of law can be divided into morality and immorality. Morality is the combination of kindness, justice and beauty, while immorality is the combination of evil, profit and disgrace. The nature of law lies in its morality. The criteria measuring morality and immorality of law include ethics, utility and technology. Based on these, one can make a scientific analysis and judgment on the moral responsibility of law.Chapter Five discusses the development and maintenance of moral community. Fuller mainly analyzes external morality (the moral goal of law) from the perspective of entity natural law. He puts forward the entity goal of the development and maintenance of moral community which relates to and supported by law. Moral community is a total of individuals and groups who treat each other according to ethics. It is a certain outcome of individuals becoming groups, expectation of social communication as well as avoidance of enforcement. Moral community is made up of three elements:people, material basis and profit goals in a moral community. It is influenced by both objective and subjective conditions, and is developed by the balance of tolerance and restriction, the combination of enforcement and autonomy, as well as the interplay of the whole nation with its people. Meanwhile, it is maintained by politics, economy, culture and society.Conclusion:There are different ways in realizing the relationship between law and morality in the aspect of legal ethics, such as facts, rules, values and spirit. During the independent development of law and morality, four branches derive from each of them. Legal appearance, law, science of law and legal philosophy derive from law, while moral appearance, moral norms, ethics and moral philosophy derive form morality. Law and morality support and merge with one another while integrate and transform from one another. Therefore, researches of both reality and theory should be carried out from fact observation, rule construction, value analysis and integration of subjects. The root of legal ethics is the morality of law, which is also the key point for people to understand and interpret the relationship between law and morality. The ultimate revealing of the value of law is the morality of law, which is composed by four parts. The first part is the moral basis of law, namely, obligation morality and expectation morality. The second part is the moral structure of law, namely, the internal and external morality of law. The third part is the moral value of law, namely, moral law and immoral law. The last part is the moral goals of law, namely, the construction and maintenance of moral community. As the basic social regulations, law and morality take the maintenance of social order as their basic aim. We may only maintain social order and create a harmonious society by realizing the interplay between law and morality as well as the government of law and morality.