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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Positive law necessarily reflects conventional social nor... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→All punishment not derived from necessity is tyrannical

    Positive law necessarily reflects conventional social norms, and legislatures have legitimate authority to encode community moral standards.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Laws require broad compliance; they gain legitimacy when aligned with widely-held community values rather than imposed arbitrarily.
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    • 2.Democratic legislatures represent the people; encoding shared moral standards respects collective self-governance and popular sovereignty.
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    • 3.Positive law coordinates behavior effectively only when citizens recognize its rules as reflecting their considered moral commitments.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Social norms vary across communities and change rapidly; basing law on them risks enshrining bigotry and denying universal moral truths.
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    • 2.Legislative majorities can be wrong morally; legitimacy requires adherence to principled constraints, not mere reflection of current preferences.
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    • 3.Laws affecting minorities disproportionately shouldn't depend on majority sentiment; some domains require rights-based limits on democratic encoding.
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    Connections

    2 topics

    Rights & Liberty1 linkedJustice & Punishment1 linked

    Related

    All punishment not derived from necessity is tyrannicalDemocratic legislatures represent the people; encoding shared moral standards re...Laws affecting minorities disproportionately shouldn't depend on majority sentim...Laws require broad compliance; they gain legitimacy when aligned with widely-hel...
    +3 moreShow less
    Legislative majorities can be wrong morally; legitimacy requires adherence to pr...Positive law coordinates behavior effectively only when citizens recognize its r...Social norms vary across communities and change rapidly; basing law on them risk...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit