ts that depart too far from true justice should, if possible, be replaced by arrangements that better promote justice and thus well-being.
             Ethics, therefore, has claimed a right to criticize legal arrangements and recommend changes to them. Many debates about the law, when they are not merely debates about how legal precedent mechanically applies in a particular situation, are also ethical debates.
             Let's summarize the relationship between morality and law.
             (1) The existence of unjust laws (such as those enforcing slavery) proves that morality and law are not identical and do not coincide. (2) The existence of laws that serve to defend basic values--such as laws against murder, rape, malicious defamation of character, fraud, bribery, etc. --prove that the two can work together. (3) Laws can state what overt offenses count as wrong and, therefore, punishable. Although law courts do not always ignore a person's intention or state of mind, the law cannot typically govern, at least not in a direct way, what is in your heart (your desires). Because often morality passes judgment on a person's intentions and character, it has a different scope than the law. (4) Laws govern conduct, at least partly through fear of punishment. Morality, when it is internalized, when it has become habit-like or second nature, governs conduct without compulsion. The virtuous person does the appropriate thing because it is the fine or noble thing to do. (5) Morality can influence the law in the sense that it can provide the reason for making whole groups of immoral actions illegal. (6) Law can be a public expression of morality, which codifies in a general way the basic principles of conduct which a society accepts. In that way, it can guide the educators of the next generation by giving them a clear outline of the
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