Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Rights and morality


As I continue to reflect on the notion of rights, I considered the danger of using law alone as the standard for determining rights. In a legal system based solely on law, that is to say, not based on morality or spirituality, rights are the product of the most powerful and/or skillful lawyers. As is evidenced by our own age, removing the consideration of what is good from the legal equation simply creates a power struggle. In that scenario, people will not stop at the boundaries of what is good. Rather, they will only stop when they win, regardless of how good (or evil) their victory is. By ignoring the moral and/or spiritual boundaries necessary for a just legal system cultures will have rights determined by the strongest, not the best, people. And, as is well known, power alone does not typically breed justice, but, rather, tyrannical societies. I see this implying that a legal system without morality at the center creates a flawed scope of rights dependent on the interests of those waging legal wars.

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