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Duty To Obey The Law: (Classes #11)
Duty To Obey The Law: (Classes #11)
Duty To Obey The Law: (Classes #11)
Readings
Class #11 (Mon. 10/10) - Duty to Obey the Law
Smith, Is There a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law? [269-285]
Class #12 (Wed., 10/12) - Civil Disobedience
Plato, Crito [251-259]
MLK, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail [259-268]
Pryor, Moral Duty and the Rule of Law [Canvas]
Specific PF Obligations
everyone agrees individuals have specific pf obligations to obey specific laws
b/c we have a specific pf moral duty not to commit acts that are mala in se or that have
seriously harmful consequences
so it is plain that in these circumstances each of us has a specific pf obligation not to
violate laws which prohibit these acts
e.g. there is a pf moral duty not to commit murder / rape / robbery - so there is a
derivative pf moral duty not to violate the corresponding law vs. murder / rape / robbery
but this is trivial
Utilitarian Arguments
act-utilitarian arguments - they fail b/c there are obvious and familiar cases in which breach of a
particular law has better consequences than obedience
rule-utilitarian arguments they fail b/c there is no reasonto believe that acceptance of the rule
Obey the law wouldhave better consequences than were no such rule recognized
b/c again - [s]ometimes breaking a law is the only way to avoid a great evil
and b/c people would still accept other moral rules (e.g. Do not harm others, Keep promises,
Tell the truth) which will give them a moral incentive to obey the law in most circumstances anyway
i.e. most people accept that they have a specific pf obligation to obey particular laws
plus fear of criminal sanctions remains a strong incentive for obeying the law in general
Moral Weight
even assuming there is a generic pf duty to obey the law how strong is it?
there are 2 tests for determining an obligations weight
a pf duty is a serious one iff
1. an act which violates that obligation and fulfills no other is seriously wrong and -2. violation of it will make considerably worse an act which on other grounds is already
wrong
more
Moral Weight
a pf duty to obey the law would not count as substantial by either test
1. running a stop sign at a clear intersection = at most a mere peccadillo
2. acts which are otherwise wrong are not made more so if they are made worse at
all by being illegal
e.g., the moral wrongness of committing a murder is not multiplied because it is
also an illegal act
so if there is a pf obligation to obey the law, it is at most of trifling weight