Lord Devlin's Theory Of Consensual Morality

Lord Devlin’s preoccupation is for society and his theory purports to be a practical and workable moral theory for fallible human being when he says that ‘ social reformers are not as patient as philosophers and we have not waited for minority groups to attain moral integrity” and that those who over emphasize individual freedom fail to realize that “the pimps leading the weak astray far outnumber spiritual explores at the head of the strong” whereas Professor H.L.A Hart’s primary concern goes to the freedom and right of self-determination of the individual and a lesser value on tradition and public opinion. It is clear that their approach to morality is different, where Lord Devlin is looking for consensual morality meanwhile Professor H.L.A

Therefore, Lord Devlin based on consensual morality has focused more on the enforcement of morality according to the general concept of society. To understand the relationship between law and morality, Lord Devlin has proposed a set of rules. Firstly, the requirement of general sense of right and wrong in a society which is known as common morality as it is a right-minded value that should be maintained by the law. Secondly, there may be bad laws, bad morals or bad societies due to the reason that the law might not serve the society but destroy it even though it is a valid law and provides profit to some people in the

Applying consensual morality, it may be argued that it is morally wrong as it does not uphold the basic morality. It is abnormal for a woman to have to give herself to more than one man as this is not only physically exhausting but also emotionally torturing. Apart from that, it is unreasonable to put a price on oneself to sell her body for sex. Therefore, it fulfills the first rule of Lord Devlin that prostitution is a dirty job, which is the common beliefs of the society. On the other hand, minority may argue that prostitution is morally not wrong as it is moral that a person can have sex to whom willing to have sex to exchange money. Thus, this situation can used to illustrate the amalgamation of