Then what should we legislate? A law is a written, formal norm,
and a norm is an expression of a moral opinion. Therefore, all
laws are, in one way or another, ultimately expressions of moral
opinions. One can legislate morality or one can legislate
nothing. P.S. When I originally posted this, it received several
interesting replies, including a couple of counterarguments.
They are reproduced below along with my responses, which I’ve
slightly edited for style. But it sounds so good to say it. For
a politician to admit otherwise would be like for an academic to
admit that his carefully-pruned technique does not, in fact,
make him perspective-neutral. The mask is just so comfortable.
Well, some laws are based directly on moral norms–don’t kill,
don’t steal–, but others aren’t really. For instance, in the US
it’s illegal to drive without a license but it isn’t immoral to
do so. If you dig deep enough down in the idea of driver’s
licensing you’ll arrive at a norm–you shouldn’t operate heavy
machinery without prov