What is the Hart–Devlin debate primarily concerned with?
Whether the criminal law may legitimately enforce moral standards in the absence of demonstrable harm
Sparked by the publication of the Wolfenden Report.
According to Devlin, what constitutes society?
A community of shared moral ideas
Erosion of these ideas risks social disintegration.
Devlin argues that society has the right to defend itself against conduct that provokes widespread moral _______.
repugnance
This includes conduct that occurs in private.
Devlin rejects the Wolfenden Report’s distinction between what two concepts?
- Crime
- Sin
He believes many criminal offences cannot be justified purely by reference to harm or public disorder.
Devlin identifies public morality through the reactions of the reasonable man or the man on the Clapham omnibus. What feelings mark the limits of toleration?
- Intolerance
- Indignation
- Disgust
These feelings indicate what conduct may be criminalised.
What does Hart argue against Devlin’s disintegration thesis?
Devlin provides no empirical evidence that societies collapse when moral consensus weakens
Hart emphasizes the need for evidence in such claims.
Hart draws heavily on Mill’s Harm Principle, which states that coercive interference with individual liberty is justified only to prevent _______.
harm to others
It does not justify enforcing morality or protecting individuals from their own choices.
Hart accepts that the law may intervene where conduct causes public _______ or nuisance.
offence
However, he denies that private immorality without victims justifies punishment.
To punish individuals merely because others are distressed by knowing that immoral acts occur in private would amount to _______.
tyranny of the majority
This reflects Mill’s warning against the coercive power of prevailing opinion.
Devlin’s position recognizes that law cannot be wholly morally neutral and that some shared values are necessary for _______.
social cohesion
However, it risks legitimising prejudice and suppressing moral pluralism.
Hart’s Millian approach offers a clearer limiting principle, protecting individual liberty and _______.
minority rights
Critics argue that Mill’s harm principle struggles with borderline cases involving indirect or diffuse harm.
The Hart–Devlin debate exposes a fundamental tension between _______ and individual liberty.
social cohesion
This tension illustrates the challenge of balancing moral consensus with personal autonomy.
Devlin’s assertion that society may enforce morality reflects a _______ concern for shared values.
communitarian
However, it risks unjustified moral coercion.
Hart’s reliance on Mill’s Harm Principle provides a more principled and liberal account of the limits of criminal law, emphasizing that moral disagreement alone is _______.
insufficient to justify punishment
This highlights the importance of demonstrating harm to others.
