The Moral Constitution is a means of understanding the U.S. Constitution which emphasizes a fusion of moral philosophy and constitutional law. The most prominent proponent is Ronald Dworkin, who advances the view in Law's Empire and Freedom's Law: The Moral Reading of the American Constitution. Alternatively, it can be taken to mean a constitution that defines the fundamental political principles and establishes the power and duties of each government, and does so while being consistent with a moral code. The moral code in turn can be in any of the forms that constitutions can be in, such as written, unwritten, codified, uncodified, etc.
It would appear that such a constitution would create a change in the application of law and in particularly Constitutional Law from a rule of law paradigm to a morality-based paradigm, and would require the explanation and descritption of that rule of morality as a principle of operation of the government specified in this constitution as a fundamental component of its structure.
The description of a rule of morality, or moral code can come in two forms. It can be a set of rules, such as the biblical Ten Commandments, and is the form of most legal systems of government today. Alternatively, it can be a set of principles, or a moral code. The latter form does not seem to have any presently working exemplars in any known government and is little commented upon.
Indeed, this alternative definition of a concept of a Moral Constitution seems to exist in any form at all only in the Bill of Morals efforts of the present government of South Africa.
Famous quotes containing the words moral and/or constitution:
“When our kids are young, many of us rush out to buy a cute little baby book to record the meaningful events of our young child’s life...But I’ve often thought there should be a second book, one with room to record the moral milestones of our child’s lives. There might be space to record dates she first shared or showed compassion or befriended a new student or thought of sending Grandma a get-well card or told the truth despite its cost.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)
“The very hope of experimental philosophy, its expectation of constructing the sciences into a true philosophy of nature, is based on induction, or, if you please, the a priori presumption, that physical causation is universal; that the constitution of nature is written in its actual manifestations, and needs only to be deciphered by experimental and inductive research; that it is not a latent invisible writing, to be brought out by the magic of mental anticipation or metaphysical mediation.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)