Should Violence Against Robots be Banned?

This paper addresses the following question: “Should violence against robots be banned?” Such a question is usually associated with a query concerning the moral status of robots. If an entity has moral status, then concomitant responsibilities toward it arise. Despite the possibility of a positive answer to the title question on the grounds of the moral status of robots, legal changes are unlikely to occur in the short term. However, if the matter regards public violence rather than mere violence, the issue of the moral status of robots may be avoided, and legal changes could be made in the short term. Prohibition of public violence against robots focuses on public morality rather than on the moral status of robots. The wrongness of such acts is not connected with the intrinsic characteristics of robots but with their performance in public. This form of prohibition would be coherent with the existing legal system, which eliminates certain behaviors in public places through prohibitions against acts such as swearing, going naked, and drinking alcohol.

Aristotle and the Ọmọlúwàbí Ethos: Ethical Implications for Public Morality in Nigeria

This essay explores the philosophical affinity between Aristotle’s concept of virtue as character habituation and the Yorùbá ethical and ontological understanding of ọmọlúwàbí as the foundation for re-examining the philosophical foundation of democratic governance in Nigeria. Based on the Aristotelian insistence that the good life is the end of politics, the essay argues for a rethinking of the concept of public morality as character-based political dynamics that enables politicians to think more about the social contract between the government and the governed, rather than an amoral understanding of politics that eschew morality and undermines the well-being of the citizens. The absence of public morality, the essay argues, has resulted in a neopatrimonial framework within which the political elite willfully circumvent constitutional rules and regulation in order to vitiate the public interest. The essay concludes by arguing for a rigorous public enlightenment as well as a reform of the educational curriculum through an injection of virtue ethics.

The case of an operetta being banned in Hungary in 1928, viewed in the mirror of contemporary press sources

In May 1928, the Andrássy Street Theatre in Budapest planned to re-stage a one-act operetta play titled The First Kiss is Mine. Its libretto was written by Jenő Heltai, and the music was composed by Albert Szirmai. The new performance started out as a resounding success. But, referring to current laws on public morality, Ministry of Interior department in charge of controlling public and cultural programmes banned the play without delay, on 18 May, and Minister of the Interior, Béla Scitovszky ordered an investigation into the matter. People referred to the event as a scandal, and the press spoke of it as an absurdity, as the theatre enterprise was endangered by the resulting loss in income. After the ban, the actors were only allowed to perform the play for a commission sent from the Ministry of Interior, and finally, on 22 May, Scitovszky permitted the program after all, with some minor changes. In my study, I reconstruct and present the events of these few days with the help of contemporary journalistic sources (reports, interviews, etc.) – Budapesti Hírlap, Esti Kurir, Magyar Hírlap, Magyarország, Pesti Hírlap, Pesti Napló, Újság, 8 Órai Újság –, the circumstances of the prohibition, the protest and opinion of the playwrights, the position of the commission, the performance for the commission, and the background of the permission for the new performance.

The influence of morality on the personal life of an individual

The article analyzes the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, civil, family and labor law in respect of their compliance with the moral foundations of society. Based on the analyzed materials, the author offers certain ap-proaches to improve Ukrainian legislation and principles of morality impacts on the personal life of an individual. The article deals with the violation of public morality in the Internet. The views of scientists the moral norms and their impact on the personal life of an individual have been analyzed. It is proved that law and morality have the functional purpose in common, they form the behavior standards, value and normative orientation of society. The positive novelties of the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Public Morality” have been analyzed, as well as the gaps in it. It has been found out that morality is an important factor in the development of society and, as a form of social consciousness, has much in common with legal consciousness. Both morality and law are a set of relatively well-established norms, rules of human behavior, which are based on the notion of what is due and just. These norms are general and, at least formally, applicable to all citizens of society.It is studied that law and morality are based on the common socio-economic interests, culture of society,people’s commitment to the ideals of freedom and justice. They have a single spiritual nature, a single value core - justice. It is found out how the relationship between morality, religion and law in the context of familyrelations, their interaction, dynamics and development, how the interaction of morality and law can prevent domestic violence.

Free Trade vis-à-vis Morality: Revisiting the Public-Morals Exception Clause in the World Trade Organization

The most sanctified obligation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the promotion and facilitation of international trade and liberalisation of the world economy. Although WTO members are committed to the WTO principle of free flow of goods and services among its members, the WTO permits its members to retain certain regulatory powers under its system to impose trade-restrictive measures based on certain exceptions, like, among other things, public morality under Article XX(a) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 1994). Nevertheless, the question remains: what is public morality for a WTO member, and how far may this clause be invoked in defence of adopting trade-restrictive measures? Recently, the WTO panel on the US tariff case revived the long-standing debate on international trade versus public morality. Is a WTO member free to choose any trade-restrictive measure under the cloak of public morality? Then, what mechanism has the WTO panel/AB (Appellate Body) envisaged to check WTO members from adopting any trade-restrictive measure based on public morals? This article tries to answer these questions by analysing previous WTO disputes related to trade and morality. Against this background, this article looks back at the history of the public-morals exception clause, revisits previous WTO case laws on the public-morals exception and tries to ascertain the precise meaning of public morality—how the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) checks and balances two conflicting principles, that is, the right to regulate and the principle of free trade—and whether WTO has successfully developed a coherent jurisprudential approach to deal with contradictory interests, that is, trade versus morality. JEL Codes: F, F1, F13

Why Men (Don’t) Buy Sex: Purity Moralization and Perceived Harm as Constraints on Prostitution Offending

This study explores the moralization of purity and perceptions of harm as constraints on sex buying among men. Purchasing sex has long been considered an offense against public morality. While personal morality provides a powerful constraint on offending, and people may vary in the extent to which they experience moral intuitions about bodily and spiritual purity, research has so far neglected the role of purity moralization in understanding sex buying behavior. We hypothesize specifically that moral intuitions about purity constrain sex buying by leading people to perceive it as inherently wrong and by eliciting perceptions that sex buying is harmful to prostitutes. We test these hypotheses in a nationally representative survey of U.S. men ( N = 2,525). Results indicate that purity moralization is associated with reduced sex buying, and that this relationship is mediated fully by perceptions of sex buying as harming prostitutes.

COMMENTARY ON JUDGMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL TRIBUNAL OF 10 DECEMBER 2014, K 52/13

This gloss is critical and raises issues related to limiting the protection of animal rights to their humane treatment, caring for their welfare, by completely allowing the ritual slaughter of animals, without their prior stunning, as is the case in Judaic or Muslim religious rites. Over the course of almost 20 years, as many as five legislative changes have been made in Poland in this regard, therefore the issue of the ritual of killing animals without first depriving them of consciousness is a very important ethical and moral problem. The long-awaited judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal on the admissibility of slaughtering animals for religious purposes was to put an end to this. In the voted judgment, the Constitutional Tribunal stated that the constitutional freedom to manifest religion - that is, the admissibility of ritual slaughter of animals - is superior to the protection of animal rights and does not pose a threat to public morality. Beginning with the scope of the applicant’s legitimacy, i.e. its legitimacy and exceeding the limits of the demands, the assessment of the weighing of competing constitutional values, the failure to develop a coherent and uniform position in the case in question, the adoption of erroneous assumptions, inaccuracies, it can be clearly stated that the judgment and (reference number K 52/13) does not solve the problem of ritual slaughter of animals in Poland, and introduces even greater chaos and disorder to the current legal system.

Public morality and morals as objects of state legal protection in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to define public morality and morals as objects of state legal protection in Ukraine. It is established that the concepts of “morality” and “morals” originated in ancient times. Attempts to reveal these terms have gone through a significant evolutionary path, what is reflected in the published thinkers’ opinions of different times. Nevertheless, discussions on their content continue to this day, indicating their indistinctness. In Ukraine, the term “public morality” is defined at the legislative level, but the object of criminal legal protection is morals. Thus, Section XII of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for liability for criminal offenses against morals. The absence of a legally defined concept of morals encourages scientists to interpret it independently. There is a viewpoint that the concepts of “morality” and “morals” are identical, what contradicts reality, in particular because they are both, although related, but exist separately and have their own history of origin and development, as well as marked with different shades in the process of use, including the legislator. It is argued that the concepts of “morality” and “morals” should not be equated and it is proposed to make certain changes to the current legislation to determine the meaning of the term “morals” as an object of state legal protection in Ukraine. This requires professional discussion. Taking into account to a certain extent the different views of scientists on the concept of public morality and morals, as well as the fact that morals is the object of criminal legal protection, but its meaning is not disclosed in any law, we propose to amend the legislation, what in particular provide for changing the name of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Public Morality” to “On the Protection of Public Morality and Morals” , as well as to define the term “morals”. This concept should be understood as the internal attitude of a person to act in a certain way or refrain from specific actions guided by their own understanding of spiritual and cultural values, personal awareness of good and evil, honor and dignity, duties to society, conscience and justice. The obtained and published results of the research can be used by lawyers in carrying out activities to protect public morality and morals, as well as by scientists in conducting further intelligence in this area.

Revisiting the Development of the Criminal Policy of the Russian Federation on Combating Crimes Against Public Morality in Sexual Relations

Introduction: the criminal legislation plays an important role in the process of ensuring the normal spiritual and moral well-being of society. Chapter 25 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996 establishes the elements of crimes aimed at protecting public morals in the field of sexual relations. However, at present, the Russian Federation does not have a legally formulated criminal policy framework for countering crimes against public morality in the field of sexual relations, which makes it difficult to effectively counteract the analyzed category of crimes. The purpose of the research is to formulate the proposals on the content of the fundamentals of the criminal policy of the Russian Federation on countering crimes against public morality in the field of sexual relations. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is based on the general scientific methods of cognition. In order to ensure the objectivity of the research, the analyzed problem is revealed as a phenomenon using a systematic approach, which allows us to reveal its mechanism in such a way that the theoretical provisions are used with the maximum efficiency in practical activities. Results: the authors propose to develop and adopt at the legislative level the concept of the state’s criminal policy in the analyzed area, which would fix the goals, objectives, principles, as well as the main directions of the fight against crimes against public morality in the field of sexual relations in the short and medium term. Conclusions: the authors’ vision of the content of the future criminal policy of the Russian Federation on countering crimes against public morality in the field of sexual relations is proposed.