Legal moralism is the

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and the philosophy of law which holds that laws may be used to prohibit or require behavior based on

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

's collective judgment of whether it is

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...

. It is often given as an alternative to

legal liberalism Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, which holds that laws may only be used to the extent that they promote liberty. The debate between moralism and liberalism attracted much attention following the publication by the UK Parliament of the Wolfenden Report in 1957, which recommended that homosexuality should be

decriminalised Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This refor ...

on the basis that the function of the law "is not... in our view... to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour".Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 1957. Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office Over the following years, H. L. A. Hart and Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin contributed significantly to the body of literature.

See also

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Further reading