The relationship between law and morality is a topic which receives
special importance and attention, especially in "liberal democracies" in
which the law is supposed to regulate highly pluralized and fragmented
societies. Under conditions of plurality of values, many social forces
and legal theories require a certain kind of neutrality from the legal
system, a means of compatibility of the many "world views" and "moral
systems" that are present within the same social space. Such a
conciliating commitment sounds particularly relevant in times of the
doctrinal ubiquity of ideas such as "peace based on human rights". This
was the title of the 28th World Congress of the IVR in Lisbon, with the
special workshop "Law and Morals" on which this book is based. It is
divided into four parts: "Law and Practical Reason", "Conceptual
Approaches on Law and Morals", "Legal versus Moral Normativity", and
"Morals and Legal Positivism".