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2024 Winning Essay – Tariro Z.

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100% Scholarship Winner, Tariro Zanele Chinondo, judged by Amelia Suda-Gosch, Female Founders
Does Law Dictate What is Ethically Right or Wrong?
Law exercises the power to bind a community to certain rules of conduct in order to maintain social order and justice. Ethics is the discipline concerned with what is morally right and wrong. Ethics significantly overlaps with law, generating social unrest, social movements, and the formation of new laws. Scrutinizing the prominent influence of changing social norms, epitomized through George Floyd’s case and the emblematic insight of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House in relation to Edward Snowden’s case, will provide supportive examples in the argument of whether law dictates what is ethically right or wrong.
Pre-existing laws become condemned as an outcome of society’s ethical values, resulting in change. George Floyd, killed on May 25, 2020, was among the 287 Black individuals out of a total of 1,159 people who lost their lives as a result of police encounters in 2020. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Ethically, Floyd’s death resurfaced a global movement (Black Lives Matter), advocating for racial justice and police reform. Legally, this outrage sparked the formation of the Policing Act (2021), which banned the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Changing societal ethical values regarding the case reflect society’s moral compass for fairness and equality. This highlights that
On the contrary, strife between laws and ethical values may not lead to lenient consequences. This is depicted in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, where Nora debates her social morality after committing forgery. The reader is aware that Nora forged her father’s signature in order to care for her husband, further creating a conflict between love and legality. Some argue that Nora should not face severe punishment for her compassion-motivated criminal offence, while others believe she should have obeyed the rules. In relation to real-life context, this conflict between law and ethics is displayed through whistleblowers. Edward Snowden was a whistleblower when he worked for the National Security Agency (NSA). He exposed classified documents in 2013. Snowden’s actions breached U.S. laws, and the U.S. Government charged him with espionage and theft of government property. On an ethical stance, Snowden claimed that he acted out of a sense of duty to the public, convinced that citizens had a right to know about the mass surveillance programs which violated their privacy. If Snowden was following the morals of transparency, one could argue he did not deserve a guilty verdict.
This indicates that a conflict between laws and ethical values cannot lead to balanced outcomes because laws are not subject to emotional evaluation.
In conclusion, law and ethics can influence each other but will remain distinct concepts. Law provides a constitutional framework for managing society, but does not comprehensively dictate what is ethically right or wrong. It simply legitimizes individuals with dissimilar moralities to coexist. Ethical considerations are shaped by individual and societal values and extend beyond the range of legal regulations. They allow individuals to question, challenge, or advocate for changes in the law based on their moral beliefs.
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