Morals and Contemporary Social Reality / trans. from Engl. A. B. Didikin, O. A. Radchenko

Abstract

In the seventh and final chapter of his «The Enforcement of Morals», P. Devlin elaborates on a several of arguments for his polemic with H. L. A. Hart on issues of the relationship between law and morals. Based on the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee which proposed a radical reform of English criminal law in the direction of decriminalizing a few of criminally punishable offences with immoral content, Devlin notes their extreme contradiction in terms of protecting the values of public morals. The chapter also criticizes the key arguments of J. S. Mill’s doctrine of the balance of liberty and state coercion.