Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A committee advising the British Parliament on homosexuality and prostitution headed Sir John Wolfenden
recommended in 1957 repeal of laws punishing homosexual conduct. The British Parliament enacted the
substance of the recommendation of the Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offenses and Prostitution 10
years later.
The Report claimed that it is not the duty of the law to concern itself with immorality. This sparked a debate
between two renowned jurists Herbert LA Hart and Patrick Delvin.
Delvins position
Harts position
1. He said Law without
1. He warned against the dangers of populism. Why should the
morality, said destroys
conventional morality of a few members of the population be
freedom of conscience and
justification for preventing people doing what they want?
is the paved road to
This is based on the theory that most people's views are coloured by
tyranny.
superstition and prejudice.
2. He appealed to the idea of
2. Hart reiterated Mill's "harm principle", Hart pointed out that
society's "moral fabric."
He argued that the
societies survive changes in basic moral views. It is absurd to
criminal law must respect
suppose that when such a change occurs, to say one society has
and reinforce the moral
disintegrated and been succeeded by another.
norms of society in order
to keep social order from
unravelling.
behaviour.
Law should be a minimum standard
not a maximum standard.